Gawanab to lead Fishcor

MATHIAS HAUFIKU WINDHOEKHaving gone over two years without a substantive head, Fishcor will finally have a permanent boss after seasoned executive Alex Gawanab was sanctioned to take over the top job at the troubled parastatal, Namibian Sun can reveal.He is expected to assume duty a week from today.Public enterprise minister Leon Jooste confirmed the appointment, saying he “will be appointed on 1 December”.Some of the immediate challenges awaiting Gawanab, according to staffers at the national fishing entity, include cleaning up the tainted image of the company as well as devising sustainable revenue generation measures to keep the company afloat.Fishcor has been living hand to mouth since the Fishrot scandal broke in 2019, in most cases receiving government bailouts in the form of fishing quotas. These quotas would then be auctioned to fund operations.ExperienceGawanab is better known in the mining sector - especially the diamond arena - where he operated for more than two decades.He holds an honours degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town. He also holds a master’s in business management and administration from Stellenbosch University. His thesis was on the need for the beneficiation of Namibian diamond exports and its impact on economic performance.He worked at several parastatals such as Debmarine, Namdeb and NamWater. He also had stints in the private sector at Dundee Precious Metals, Swakop Uranium and NamGem Diamond Manufacturing.Confidente reported in September that seven people competed for the position.These include director in the fisheries ministry, Hafeni Mungungu; deputy chairperson of the Central Procurement Board of Namibia Lischen Ramakhutla; Ndeshi Akwenye, who has been a senior manager at Namibia Breweries Ltd; Saima Ntinda, a former chief internal auditor at Air Namibia; Ferdinand Ganaseb, who was an engineering and technical services executive at TransNamib, and Jonisiu Kambwale, a finance manager at NEPC.Until this appointment, Gawanab was the director of business improvement at Swakop Uranium.Previous irregularitiesFishcor had to run two interview processes after the public enterprises ministry stopped the initial process due to alleged recruitment irregularities.The first process recommended Fisheries Observer Agency CEO Stanley Ndara.The ministry in June asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to probe how Ndara ended up being shortlisted after allegedly missing the application deadline.

Gawanab to lead Fishcor

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Gawanab to lead Fishcor

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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