Journal of Ocean Law and Governance in Africa

Issue Number

Latest documents

• Preliminary notes - contents
• Preliminary notes
• Trafficking in persons and forced labour of migrants in fisheries: Law enforcement challenges in South Africa

  There is ample evidence of heightened criminal activity occurring in the global fisheries sector, including trafficking in persons and labour exploitation. While South Africa continues to see its own share of these offences within the waters under its jurisdiction, the government has yet to make sufficient strides towards eliminating these offences in the fisheries sector despite the recent enactment of South Africa's first comprehensive anti-trafficking statute. This paper focuses on the need for an improved law enforcement response at sea ports of entry in South Africa to identify and assist victims of severe forms of labour exploitation. The discussion centres on key law enforcement challenges arising out of the failure to view trafficking in persons and forced labour as a type of 'fisheries crime', the capacity gaps on the part of the relevant compliance and enforcement officials as well as the absence of a cross-departmental and agency strategy designed to target these crimes in fisheries. The challenges are analysed and suggestions are made for potential improved enforcement responses.

• Document: National Framework for Marine Spatial Planning in South Africa (2017)
• Document: Marine Spatial Planning Act, 2018 (Act 16 of 2018) (South Africa)
• The impact of customary rights on marine spatial planning

  This article considers the potential conflict that may arise between the cultural rights of members of coastal indigenous communities and the application of the marine spatial planning legislation in South Africa. Members of indigenous coastal communities are an integral part of South Africa's heritage and many of those communities have suffered injustices in the past. The Constitution of South Africa recognises and protects members of indigenous communities' cultural rights as customary law. The State also has a constitutional duty to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the right to participate in the cultural life of one's choice. The article outlines the development and current status of customary law in South Africa. Thereafter, a discussion of how customary law has developed to the point of enhancing the environmental rights of the members of indigenous communities is provided, with specific reference to Alexkor Ltd and Another v Richtersveld Community and Others and Gongqose and Others v Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Others; Gongqose and Others v State. The article then discusses the potential conflict between the customary law of members of coastal indigenous communities who exercise their cultural rights and marine spatial planning legislation to ascertain to which extent cultural rights may be limited during the marine spatial planning process.

• Document: White Paper on National Environmental Management of the Ocean (2014) (South Africa)
• Fishing for equality in marine spatial planning

  Rooted in the ambitions to achieve a more sustainable use of marine resources without exceeding environmental thresholds, marine spatial planning has emerged as a process that may enable a balancing of various interests and objectives to promote sustainable ocean governance. In South Africa, the marine spatial planning process will be guided by the principles set out in section 5 of the Marine Spatial Planning Act, 2018 (Act 16 of 2018). This paper examines one principle, namely 'the promotion of equity between and transformation of sectors', which is listed in section 5(1)(g). The meaning and implications of this principle are explored in the broader context of the constitutional right to equality and applied to small-scale fishers.

• Law enforcement responses facilitated by a fisheries crime approach: The South African example

  In line with international developments, South Africa is in the grips of recasting its understanding of illegal fishing as a potential form of fisheries crime that is frequently transnational and organised. This unlocks the use of a number of previously untapped law enforcement tools in the domestic and international criminal law and procedure sphere towards addressing the problem. This article extrapolates these tools in the context of surveying possible South African law enforcement responses relating to fisheries crime from both a legislative (theoretical) and a practical perspective with reference to recent case law trends.

• Convention on Sub-Regional Cooperation in the Exercise of Maritime Hot Pursuit (1993)

Featured documents

• International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) SRFC Advisory Opinion (2015)
• Law enforcement responses facilitated by a fisheries crime approach: The South African example

  In line with international developments, South Africa is in the grips of recasting its understanding of illegal fishing as a potential form of fisheries crime that is frequently transnational and organised. This unlocks the use of a number of previously untapped law enforcement tools in the...

• 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (2014)

  Africa's inland waters, oceans and seas are under pressure. Over the years, traditional maritime activities, such as shipping or fisheries have intensified, while new ones, such as aquaculture or offshore renewable energy, emerged. However, the rise in intensity of activities at sea is taking place ...

• African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007)
• The delimitation of maritime boundaries on Africa’s eastern seaboard

  This article analyses the extent to which maritime boundaries have been delimited on Africa's eastern seaboard. The article starts by discussing the delimitation agreements which have been concluded. Following this, the article discusses two cases that have been submitted to a third party, namely...

• Institutional gaps in the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy

  This article identifies some gaps in the institutional framework of the Africa's Integrated Maritime (AIM) Strategy, with regard to certain vital areas of concerns in the sea, such as maritime security enforcement, an African international judicial mechanism dealing with maritime matters, the outer ...

• Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (2009)
• The impact of customary rights on marine spatial planning

  This article considers the potential conflict that may arise between the cultural rights of members of coastal indigenous communities and the application of the marine spatial planning legislation in South Africa. Members of indigenous coastal communities are an integral part of South Africa's...

• Document: White Paper on National Environmental Management of the Ocean (2014) (South Africa)
• African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (2003)