Fishing is in Sagree Gerdharee’s blood — the eldest daughter of the late Boya Chetty always knew she would answer the call of sea.
Today Gerdharee is chief executive of Mayibuye Fishing, having taken over the reins of the company from her entrepreneurial father when he died in 2019.
“I would go from school to do invoices for my father when I was 12 or 13 years old.
“Then I studied auditing,” Gerdharee says of her lifelong immersion in the business.
“Watching and learning from my father who had been in the fishing industry for over 40 years was all the experience I needed.
“I worked in his shadow and it was only when he passed away two years ago that the time came for me to make waves myself.”
As the vice-chair of the South East Coast Inshore Fishing Association, Gerdharee is today a leader in an industry she says is “very risky and capital intensive”.
Just as easily as they are allocated, fishing quotas may also be reduced or removed, which makes it hard for small business owners to plan investments and ensure job security for their staff.
She knows she has paid her dues.
Even when her own family moved to Pietermaritzburg, where Gerdharee was a full-time homemaker, she brushed up on tax and finance studies, and helped Mayibuye Fishing with national sales.
Then, when she and mechanical engineer husband Amardeep moved back to Nelson Mandela Bay 13 years ago, they continued working in the Chetty family business.
In August, the Making Waves campaign launched by Atlantis Seafood Products celebrates stakeholders in the fishing industry across the value chain, such as Mayibuye.
The Gerdharees are working to grow it and other small to medium enterprises.
Despite having small quotas and limited resources, they have invested in both hake deep-sea and inshore trawlers.
“I find the fishing industry to be very competitive and challenging, and I’m constantly thinking about those who must live off this industry.
“That would be my goal and inspiration, to ensure that we all get the benefit of this resource and play a significant role in the industry,” Gerdharee said.
“My father pioneered transformation in the fishing industry and I have a big shadow to live up to, but he instilled in me high values, integrity and work ethic, all of which I apply each day.”
So well known was her father, Boya, she said, that many today still thought of her as Sagree Chetty, rather than Gerdharee.
Her larger-than-life father founded community-based seafood wholesaler Chetty’s Fisheries in Korsten in 1978.
In its first year, the number of employees grew from two to 20.
Though many people in Nelson Mandela Bay remember him for his soccer administration prowess, Chetty also helped develop the Eastern Cape seafood and fishing industry, and was a strong advocate for black-owned fishing companies and quota holders.
As Gerdharee says, the issue of quotas is an ongoing battle.
“People think it’s easy just to own vessels and go fishing, but the government makes it very difficult.
“Fish are always a resource that doesn’t belong to you.”
Gerdharee has been one of thousands of Bay residents personally affected by the pandemic.
She contracted the virus in June and was severely ill, spending a night in hospital to receive oxygen.
She has slowly been recovering and, despite still struggling with shortness of breath and fatigue, is back at work.
Her next priority is preparing for the Fishing Rights Allocation Process.
“Since my father pioneered transformation in the industry, we support newcomers provided that existing small and medium companies that have made substantial investment and created employment remain sustainable,” she said of the allocation process.
“The success of our company is attributed to all our employees, especially some very strong women — all leaders on their own.”
The fishing sector is a vital part of SA’s economy, feeding more than three-million people every day.
The industry comprises 22 different sectors and directly employs more than 27,000 South Africans.
Mayibuye’s deep sea Elke M trawler contributes to employment — it has a fresh fish hold capacity of 45 tonnes and operates with a crew of 24 in the Eastern Cape, trawling primarily for hake.
Fish caught on the Elke M are delivered fresh from the boat to the Mayibuye-owned Nice ’n Fishy in Newton Park, among many other customers.
Mayibuye is also a partner in the larger Umzabalazo vessel, a 75m factory freezer trawler with a gross tonnage of 1,745 tonnes, which operates from the Cape Town harbour with a crew of 59.
Fish is frozen on board the Umzabalazo, sold in SA and exported to Spain, Australia and China.
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