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South African MCS officers contribute to raising the bar of MCS capacity in the SADC
On 02-04 December 2025, South Africa hosted the first national training event of the Project “Strengthening the SADC MCSCC: Focus on Atlantic Coastal States” (SADC Atlantic States*). For three days, fisheries compliance officers (FCOs) from Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, as well as representatives from the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) and the Border Management Authority (BMA) met in Cape Town to discuss next steps to consolidate achievements of South Africa under the SADC ATLANTIC Project in terms of fishing vessel risk assessments and inspections, with a focus on procedures for foreign fishing vessels coming to port. Since SADC Atlantic, South Africa has been a major player in regional MCS cooperation through active involvement in the activities of the Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC). With SADC Atlantic States, South Africa, Namibia and Angola are now aiming to share their MCS best practices to all SADC MCSCC State Parties, underpinning the objective of the MCSCC to harmonise MCS procedures throughout the region.
As part of the SADC Atlantic Project, South Africa supported the elaboration and fine tuning of a methodology to assess risks of fishing vessels requesting entry into South African ports. South Africa has been one of the first countries to ratify the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the first global binding agreement to prevent illegal fish from entering national markets. “Our introduction of this practice to conduct risk assessments is in line with South Africa’s commitment to implement the PSMA”, said Cheslyn Liebenberg, MCS Chief Director at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE). “Fishing vessel operators need to be aware that Cape Town is not a port of convenience”.
Through their experience implementing this methodology and other MCS tools, South Africa and the other project countries Angola and Namibia are making a meaningful contribution to the operationalisation of the MCSCC. “Enhancing MCS national capacity in all MCSCC State Parties is critical to fulfil our regional and international commitments to end IUU fishing, because it is the countries that are responsible for operationalising the Centre”, said Dr. Motseki Hlatshwayo, fisheries technical advisor at the SADC Secretariat. All three countries have been instrumental in making the next steps to establish the Regional Register of Fishing Vessels (RRFV), a key function of the MCSCC. This experience is now to be promoted throughout the SADC region: in October 2025, the MCSCC Operational Task Force recommended to endorse the risk assessment methodology for regional use as part of the RRFV process.
The SADC Atlantic States Project aims to build on those achievements, with the objective to take the next steps in integrating fully those best practices as part of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This will also include SOPs for inspection, where South Africa’s MCS officers already demonstrate strong skills. For this, support and mentoring for inspection, in presence and through body-worn cameras (BWC), will continue after this training. Whilst SOPs will be aligned with national legislation, they will also provide guidance to identify a minimum base for operations, aligned to best international practices, that each country could tailor to its national context – supporting the region in implementing its vision to harmonise MCS procedures through the MCSCC.
“South Africa has been one of the first countries to sign the MCSCC Charter because we are fully aware of how it can help us fight IUU fishing as a region in an integrated manner”, said Cheslyn Liebenberg. With this initial training, South Africa’s FCOs have shown they are ready to take a leading position to bring it to its full potential.
* SADC Atlantic States is a Project of the MCSCC supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) provided through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the European Union under the Blue Benguela Current Action initiative and implemented by SIF as a technical partner to the MCSCC. The Project partners with Angola, Namibia and South Africa, which already cooperate through the Benguela Current Convention (BCC).