Affordable rentals, transparency of leases and the site development plan, fishing opportunities for the youth – these are requests from fishers, business owners and other Hout Bay Harbour users levelled at Sihle Zikalala, the national Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, last week.
The department is responsible for maintaining the country’s harbours, and, last Thursday, Mr Zikalala made a commitment to ensure that historically disadvantaged communities surrounding Hout Bay harbour benefit from the economy of the harbour and from services.
Mr Zikalala was supposed meet with fishers, civic groups, City officials and business owners at the harbour last month but was summoned to a meeting with the president at the last minute (“Officials hear of harbour ills”, Sentinel, May 12).
“Hout Bay harbour has always been considered a hotspot, infamous for crime, drugs, poaching and protests,” said Mr Zikalala.
Following the May meeting, Mr Zikalala announced a R501-million refurbishment programme at 13 harbours in the province.
Provincial manager, Penny Penxa said issues raised at previous meetings include high vacancy rates of buildings; renewal of leases which are currently month to month; lack of business opportunities for those in Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg; small-scale fishers fishing rights; compromised security; sub-letting at exorbitant rates; lack of maintenance and leasing of vacant sites.
She said management of the Hout Bay precinct project has gone out to tender with applications ending on Friday July 14. These would be finalised by the end of November. The goal is to increase the investment, she said, by attracting investors into the harbour to encourage transformation and empowerment and ensure revenue and job creation.
Ms Penxa said of 70 available sites, five have active leases, 41 are month to month and 24 are vacant.
She said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) have only received responses from 13 of the 71 businesses approached to renew their leases. These leases will be reviewed case-to-case with the National Treasury’s chief procurement office.
Ms Penxa said a small business precinct is part of the site development plan. A business hub with very affordable rentals dedicated to crafts, food stalls and whatever the community want to sell. She said preference will be given to local people and this will bring sponsorship and pledging of bursaries and similar into these communities.
A state-of-the-art facility for cleaning and packaging fish is also part of the development plan. Mr Zikalala said this will enable small-scale fishers to process and sell their fish without them going through a middleman. He added that government has an appetite to support cooperative fishers.
Deputy director of Small-scale Fisheries in the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE), Abongile Ngqongwa, said 235 fishers in Hangberg and 89 in Imizamo Yethu meet the criteria for 15-year fishing rights.
This criteria includes being South African and residing in a fishing community; 10 years and more fishing activities; their livelihood being dependent on fishing and belonging to a fishing cooperative.
Mr Ngqongwa said they are now looking for the support of mentors from the community to aid these fishers with experience in running a business. “The challenge is that marine resources are declining. We need to ensure sustainability and balance and not become guilty of quantity over the story behind the fish that are caught,” he said.
Gregg Louw, chairperson of the Hout Bay Aquafarmers Cooperative, asked what is happening to the pilot project announced by DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy in 2019. He said 150 households in Hangberg are dependent on poaching.
Hangberg resident Sophie Moseadie said the community do not want a repeat of what happened with the Hout Bay market. She said they were told it would be a place where they could sell their wares but they cannot participate because the rentals are too high. Ms Moseadie asked that the youth of the community be kept in mind in any plans for the harbour as many teenagers are diving to feed their families and have not been included in the small-scale fishing programme. “It brings violence because there is no equality in the community,” she said.
Calling himself a representative of a local fisher folk, Fuad Jacobs addressed Mr Zikalala, saying they object to working with the City of Cape Town. “They have a hitman, JP Smith. Don’t sleep with the enemy. Don’t put us back in apartheid,” he said. Mr Zikalala moved the meeting along.
Afterwards, ward councillor, Roberto Quintas said the comment was, “preposterous political grandstanding where I was being accused of causing injuries to people who were rioting in 2010. That’s six years before I became a councillor in Hout Bay.”
Roscoe Jacobs asked about funding to pay for leases. “The community cannot get a loan from the bank and will be forced into going into partnership with white people.”
Small business owner and military veteran, Dicky Meter, said the criteria for leases must be made public.
Another military veteran, boat owner and former member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, Max Ozinsky, asked for a workshop so they can see how the harbour space will be used and also the time frames of allowing community participation.
Mr Zikalala said a full-day workshop including the site development plan will be held in three months. He said the upgrades of the small harbours are aimed at creating an appetite to new investors within the harbours. This will re-ignite the local economies across the coastal areas of South Africa and have a positive spin–off on job creation.
Mr Quintas said he was extremely pleased to hear much of his Motion of Exigency “Re-Imagining Hout Bay Harbour” plan echoed almost point for point during Mr Zikalala’s report back regarding the way forward for the harbour.
