To: All media
Issued by: Masifundise Development Trust
Date: 16 May 2025
Subject: Masifundise Welcomes Eastern Cape SSF Summit, Urges DFFE to Tackle Longstanding Challenges
Masifundise Development Trust is a non-profit organisation advocating for social, economic, climate and environmental justice within small-scale fishing communities in South Africa, for over 20 years.
On 20 May 2025, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts will be hosting the SSF Summit in Mthatha Stadium, Eastern Cape. The summit forms part of the DFFE’s ongoing implementation of the Small-Scale Fisheries Policy and to create engagement between government and all registered small-scale cooperatives in the Eastern Cape.
Ahead of the SSF Summit organised by DFFE, Coastal Links and Masifundise is disappointed by the Minister’s absence from addressing rural small-scale fishing communities’ issues.
Despite years of advocacy and grassroots mobilisation, many fisher people remain excluded from the full benefits envisioned in the Small-Scale Fisheries Policy. We therefore call on the Department to critically assess both the implementation and impact of the policy across different regions.
We urge that the issues raised during the summit be addressed with the urgency fisher people demand. For years, fisher people have voiced their concerns, and the Eastern Cape’s coastal communities, in particular, continue to face a complex web of interrelated socio-economic and environmental issues that require immediate action.
Masifundise and Coastal Links Eastern Cape call on the Department to urgently and thoroughly address the following key issues affecting small-scale fishing communities.