SA's cold war over abalone fishing rights simmers

Minister Dion George to decide permit revocation appeals

- By Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

While the world frets over US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs and their sting on global trade, a quieter economic war is playing out along South Africa’s rugged coastline.

It is a conflict fought not with tanks or sanctions, but with permits, appeals, and accusations of illegality over who gets to harvest the ocean’s most prized mollusc: abalone.

For two decades, abalone has been South Africa’s most contested fish, balancing billion-rand export potential against rampant poaching, criminal syndicates, and fragile ecosystems. What was once an artisanal delicacy served in coastal towns has become the centre of a national dispute, pitting longstanding right holders against regulators determined to curb transgressions.