Customary systems of marine resource governance have gained increasing attention internationally in the past three decades. Notwithstanding this, and despite the Constitutional recognition of customary governance and customary law in South Africa, the post-apartheid legislative reforms in the fisheries sector have failed to recognise customary systems of marine resource governance. Drawing on a case-study of the Dwesa-Cwebe community in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, this research aimed to describe and understand the customary marine resource governance system of this community and its relationship to living customary law. It explores how this customary system of marine resource governance has interfaced with statutory and other systems of law in the past and how it continues to develop in the current context. The findings from this research highlight the distinctive nature of the customary system of marine resource governance practiced by the community of Dwesa-Cwebe and their expressions of living customary law embedded in this governance system. The nature of this system is foundationally different to that of a Western statutory governance system. This customary system of governance has interacted with the statutory system for over a century, in part distorted by this system but retaining its integrity. In the context of the Constitutional recognition of customary systems of governance and customary law, this governance system now requires understanding and recognition in a new system of marine resource governance in South Africa. This thesis explores the contribution that this system of customary governance can make towards promoting socially just smallscale fisheries in South Africa. It argues that harmonisation of the statutory and customary system of marine resource governance demands an approach to governance theory and practice that is able to imagine an alternative ‘ecology of governance’.

Includes bibliographical references.