Zippo,
Please note launching out of the Mdumbi river or Mthatha River is illegal. They are not regfistered launch sites, and if caught launching there, you will have your ski confiscated by the authorities.
Unfortunately the launch fees are high, and as the Vice commidor of the club its an issue we are still fisghting. The community take over 50% of the launch fees plus we have to pay the launch monitor to be Employed. These are conditions that the DEAT launch site permit was issued to Tshani Deep Sea angling club.We also need to try to recover some of the more than 40,000 we have spent to get the launch site permit issued, as well as repairs to the launch site, which takes a hammering especially in the winter storms.
If boats use the illegal launch sites, it gives DEAT ammo to close allt he transkei launch sites as they say thay are unmanagembel and cant be checked for illegal activity. It took me personally almost 1.5years to get mdumbi open and legal again and irresponsible comments like you rather taking the free but illegal option will jeapodize the status of the launch and the nearest alternative launch is then Hole in the wall. Note Tshani deep sea angling club has 30 memebrs and 14 boats only so the costs of running the launch are huge (given the limited memebership)
Out of interest our permit prohibits jetski's for some reason, but we have chosen to ignore this as its discriminatory, but we will enforce it over dec etc if the guys are illesponsible and ride amongst the swimmers etc. If for fishing, we view it the same as a boat. All these are up for discussion again at the AGM in Dec.
Tthe community view deepsea fisherman as all being rich and want to milk us dry even though by having visitors the community benefits. They would rather collect as much from 1 person than a bit less from many. Typical africa. Its something I am slowly working on them for.
I do however see their arguement, we arrive with 100-500,000 boats and complain about R300 launch fees.
Please contact me to discuss further if you wish. i am also in EL.
I will also be discussing denzils comments with him as all illegal activity will seriously hamper our launch permit.
Regards
Tshani Deep Sea Angling Club