15 April 2005
	CATCH IN DRAFT POLICY Roy Gordon, CEO I&J Holdings.

The environmental affairs & tourism department has surely missed the message in your article (Business April 8) and the message so clearly enunciated by the president in his opening address to parliament - that job creation is a cornerstone of government's economic agenda. Its latest draft policy for the fishing industry will have disastrous consequences for employment in SA. The fishing industry is made up of a number of subsidiary industries or sectors each with its own characteristics. At one end of the spectrum are the industrial sectors, the biggest of which is hake. This sector is characterised by substantial investments in vessels and land-based processing plants. (A new fresher vessel costs about U$8m to build. A typically large processing plant employs more than 1 200). This sector is more advanced in beneficiation than any other natural resource sector in SA, and exports finished products worldwide. Beneficiation creates more jobs, directly and indirectly, than commodity trading of raw materials. The department's 2001 economic sectoral study proved this in respect of the hake sector. The new draft policy seeks to distribute 10% of quota holders' rights to new small- and medium-sized enterprises (on top of a 25% quota rights redistribution since 1994). This will result in the loss of 8001 000 direct jobs and about 3 000 indirect jobs. There will be other effects, not least the impact on black economic empowerment shareholders' investments in the larger companies. Do cabinet members talk to each other?