WILD COAST COOPORATIVES TO BENEFIT FROM WSU SMAFED RESARCH NICHE AREA

At least 11 fishing cooperatives stand to benefit from a partnership between WSU, Yakhani Corporative and Wild Coast Fishing Corporatives in King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.

Housed by the Risk and Vulnerability Science Center, the partnership seeks to provide knowledge that will address the needs of fishing cooporatives from a scientific, economic and legal perspective through research and community engagement.

“RVSC seeks to create resilient communities where scientific knowledge and research plays an integral part in the development and sustainability of communities. We have partnered with several internal and external stakeholders to make sure that wild coast fishing coporatives benefit from this vision and gets the guidance they need,” said RVSC Director, Professor Motebang Nakin.

The initiative kickstarted in January 2022 with an introductory symposium led by researchers, Dr Sylvia Nkanyuza and Prof Grace Okuthe, with small scale fishing cooperatives from the Port St Johns community.

It came after the then Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy granted 15-year rights to 78 new small-scale fishing cooperatives in the Eastern Cape in 2020, to which approximately, 52 of these fishing co-operatives are in the OR Tambo District Municipality region.

“After being granted fishing rights, these cooperatives had a fear of being robbed by big entities, so we decided to assist and guide them so that they and their communities directly benefit from the fishing licenses. WSU was then identified as one of the key drivers of the project because of its Vision 2030 which seeks to respond to societal needs by championing sustainable and just development,” said Yakhani Director, Qhayisa Tolobisa.

In line with the Sustainable Marine and Freshwater Economic Development Research Niche Arear established in 2021, the researcher, in partnership with Tolobisa, conducted a SWOT analysis that would provide basis for guidance in some of SMAFED core objectives.

This led to the initiation of a process to develop an MoU with the Fishing Cooperatives represented as an umbrella body.

In a bid to bolster the financial resilience of small-scale fishing cooperatives, Department of Economics took a proactive step of hosting an empowering finance workshop in Coffee Bay, early in July of 2023.

The workshop was a hands-on interactive session that aimed at advancing the knowledge of participants on how to make a budget, manage expenses, marketing logistics, protection from financial fraud, as well as formalization and compliance of the cooperatives.

“The workshop provided the participants with the cognitive understanding of sustainable practices that can be implemented in their day-to-day operations, ensuring the efficient management of a fishing cooperative,” said Head of Department of  Economics and Business Science, Vikela Sithole.  

The partnership extended to King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality and Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (ECDRA).

By Ongezwa Sigodi