Im sitting here with tears in my eyes. As I watched the video of the Houtbay boy being shot in the face.
People of SA, let me break it down for you. The reason for the violence in the fishing villages are due to the fact that the fishermens livelyhood has been taken away.
The quotas have been allocated and only 406 people were successful of the over 3890 entrants.
People of SA, let me break it down for you. The reason for the violence in the fishing villages are due to the fact that the fishermens livelyhood has been taken away.
The quotas have been allocated and only 406 people were successful of the over 3890 entrants.
When the farm owners have a drought or so, government has a relieve fund to help them, but when fishers cant fish there is no help from anywhere. When someone is in a car accident the road accident fund pays you out. But when a fisher dies at sea, the family gets nothing.
The size of quotas came from between the 1985 - 1998 was around 13- 16 tons per abalone diver.
In 2004 they reduced the quota size to between 400-600kg per diver
In 2014 it reduced to 223 kg
Crayfish reduced from 750kg to a meesly 304kg
This years allocated total will be 150kg nearshore and intrim will recieve 50kg
Factory price per kg is between R200- R250 minus
Catching fee is between R60 - R75 per kg
Permit fee R1080
Gate fee R 50 per day
Bait R20 kg x 300
Levies to DAFF R20-R40 per kg
So what will the fisherman be left with?
Catching fee is between R60 - R75 per kg
Permit fee R1080
Gate fee R 50 per day
Bait R20 kg x 300
Levies to DAFF R20-R40 per kg
So what will the fisherman be left with?
How does a man feel when his children are hungry and he cannot feed them. When they ask for a packet of chips or sweets and you cannot even afford that. So when the child sees the poverty they lose interest in things of good, the elements like gangsters then take advantage of this and bid they kids nice things like sneakers clothes money, so this all in turn has a ripple effect of heartbreak and tears.
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The big Factories like Oceana and Premier get allocated a qouta of around 250000 kg they sell it at R550- R600 per kg
They get richer and the fishermen just stay with nothing losing all hope
What I can say is a hungry man is an angry man
I hope this post has enlightened you. Please help us the fishers of SA to get what we deserve.
Government must take from the big entities and give us the little people viable quotas to live from.
Our children also deserve to be able to wear nice clothes, go to good schools, and have nice things.
Please share and help the cry of the weak.
Government must take from the big entities and give us the little people viable quotas to live from.
Our children also deserve to be able to wear nice clothes, go to good schools, and have nice things.
Please share and help the cry of the weak.
Sherman Pharo is a fisherman and owns a well-established fish-mongering business in the Hermanus vicinity of the Cape Coast.
Sherman is also one of the featured characters in the "Heroes of The Abalone Wars" documentary.
The unfair allocation of quotas for particularly crayfish and abalone are virtually designed honest hardworking fishermen into poachers... thereby criminalising their livelihood.
HEROES OF THE ABALONE WARS (1-min teaser) - YouTube
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HEROES OF THE ABALONE WARS (1-min teaser) - YouTube
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Bob Marley said: "A hungry man is an angry man." The abalone poachers of the Cape Coast of South Africa are struggling to survive even as they are pushing the local abalone species, Haliotis midae, to the brink of extinction. But the these poachers are prepared to die, if necessary, to save their families from poverty, drugs and alcohol generated by the forces of political corruption and the growing demand for abalone in China, where it is prized as a delicacy and aphrodisiac.
You can also watch a 15 Minute condensed version of the documentary in the link below.
The full documentary has now finally been completed and hopefully Bruinou.com will be able to bring you details of that soon.