Residents of Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu claim that promises made under Operation Phakisa, a government plan to boost economic growth and create jobs with the ocean economy as one of its focus areas, have not been fulfilled or benefited local, black-owned businesses and small-scale fishermen.
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Patience Gerpfte, a businesswoman, is one of many entrepreneurs in Hout Bay calling for transformation at the harbour so that local, black-owned businesses and small-scale fishermen can benefit from the ocean economy. Gerpfte told News24 that she has been waiting for eight years for the approval of her lease application at the Hout Bay Harbour.
‘I have applied for a space at the harbour every year for the past eight years. You are supposed to submit a business plan and a lease application. I think I have submitted three business plans, but still nothing from [the Department of] Public Works and Infrastructure,’ Gerpfte told News24.
Gerpfte stated that the buildings for which they have applied are in disrepair and that even if they are granted a lease, it will now cost millions to upgrade them.
Residents have asserted that the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, which is in charge of the maintenance and infrastructure of South African harbours as well as the letting or renting of their structures, needed to have concrete plans in place to ensure that transformation could take place.
In defence, the department has asserted its continued commitment to Operation Phakisa’s new leasing framework, which could help and empower local and black-owned businesses, according to News24.
Operation Phakisa, which was launched in 2014, is a component of the National Development Plan, which aims to boost economic growth, create jobs and address issues with inequality, poverty and unemployment. The government and other stakeholders, including the business community and civil society, participated in the Operation Phakisa Small Harbours Development Mini-Lab in 2018, which aimed to increase revenue and create jobs by leasing out small harbours and state coastal properties.
The department said it would collaborate with the chief procurement officer of the National Treasury to create a new letting framework to guarantee income and job creation, thereby empowering black-owned and regional businesses through radical economic transformation measures. The department is still committed to its transformation mandate, according to Thami Mchunu, director of media and stakeholder relations for the department. Mchunu noted that the department is currently starting to implement the new letting-out framework.
‘The new letting-out framework is premised mainly on three pillars, i.e., youth empowerment, woman empowerment and people with disabilities. It also promotes and empowers small-scale fishing in the surrounding communities,’ Mchunu told News24.
Mchunu stated that there was no funding allocated for small businesses in the new letting-out framework, but they planned to contact the Department of Small Business Development for assistance.
Gregg Louw, vice chair of the Hangberg Peace and Mediation Forum and chair of the Hout Bay Aquafarmers Cooperative, told News24 that the government had ignored transformation plans for small harbours like Operation Phakisa.
Louw claimed that more transformation was required at the Hout Bay harbour for black-owned businesses, but he added that this transformation was still a long way off and that there were currently only six coloured tenants there and no black ones. According to Louw, putting local companies first could have a positive effect on the harbour, which has been plagued by poor infrastructure and security problems related to poaching, human trafficking and vandalism.
A member of the Imizamo Yethu Fishing Forum, Makoti Nomathemba, agreed that the community had not yet reaped the rewards of the harbour. Nomathemba, who has lived in Imizamo Yethu since 1991 and in Hout Bay since 1978, claimed that little to no room had been provided for locals and neighbouring communities.
She added that high leasing costs were a problem for businesses as well.
‘We would like access to the harbour to show something of ours, like the others. But we don’t have that money,’ she told News24.
Patience Gerpfte says that despite saying that the Hout Bay harbour was in a ‘sad state,’ she insisted that she would keep on applying for a lease there.
‘I want the harbour to be as it used to be. Years back, the harbour was very busy. Hundreds of people were walking around, and there was a different atmosphere. I want this back,’ she said.
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