Joemat-Pettersson comes under fire for SA hake fiasco

According to Business Day, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokesman Selby Bokaba said on Thursday, 14 June 2012, that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has given SA a year's grace period to save the council's accreditation of the country's deep sea trawler-caught hake catch.

Bokaba's comment came as the department sought to allay fears that SA would suffer heavy financial losses if it failed to facilitate the accreditation.

Fish SA, an umbrella body of fisheries associations, said its members faced losing the southern European market because of the financial crisis in that region, and would be locked out of the northern European market if SA lost MSC accreditation. Business Day reports that the MSC-accredited fishery is worth about R2,8bn a year. MSC oversight director Daniel Hoggarth said that If SA is suspended; fish caught in its waters cannot be sold under the MSC logo.

In a scathing editorial on Friday, Business Day says that it is a wonder that Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson survived the recent Cabinet reshuffle, adding that "if the Springboks play tomorrow the way the [DAFF] has handled its responsibilities of late, we are in for a hiding from England." Pieter van Dalen, the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Shadow Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said on Allafrica.com that the loss of MSC membership puts at least 5,000 jobs. "If real job performance informed the criteria for the Cabinet reshuffle this week, Tina should have been the first to go," van Dalen said.

Read the 'Department moves to allay hake market fears' on www.businessday.co.za.
Read 'EDITORIAL: Department at sea over licences' on www.businessday.co.za.
Read the full article on http://allafrica.com.