ABSTRACT
Central state control of the commercially important maritime commons on the west and south coast of South Africa dates from 1940. Monopolies in the South African fisheries pre-date 1940, but the state actively assisted their formation in the inshore fisheries after this date through the issuing of exclusive use rights and provision of capital via the Fisheries Development Corporation set up in 1944. State management unavoidably politicised the fisheries. Access rights were subject to frequent, usually annual, review, allowing the minister wide discretionary power and converting such rights into a lucrative form of political patronage. The ANC has dismissed all charges of playing politics with the fisheries by referring to its popular mandate to redress the legacy of apartheid. The ship of post-apartheid reform has floundered on the shoals of history in the fisheries, as elsewhere in the South African economy.
