Lost income high on fishermen's agenda

Walvis Bay resident Knowledge Ipinge, who recently mobilised retrenched workers who lost their jobs as a consequence of the 'Fishrot' scandal, says acting fisheries minister Albert Kawana must make a firm commitment when he meets with union bosses this week to discuss re-employing thousands of fishermen.“They need to make a formal commitment to these guys. The ministry should start from there. The workers must be compensated for lost income. That is the conversation the ministry should have,” said Ipinge, who will be standing as an independent candidate in the upcoming Walvis Bay Urban Constituency by-election.Estimates place the number of fishing jobs lost at 4 000. The jobs were lost when former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau started cutting the size of the horse mackerel quotas that had been awarded to United Fishing, Etosha Fishing and Namsov. The quotas were instead given to state-owned enterprise Fishcor, which then dubiously sold the quotas below market value to Icelandic fishing company Samherji, allegedly in exchange for bribes paid to Esau and those close to him.Esau was able to cut the three companies' quota allocations after the Marine Resources Act had been amended. The amendment gave Esau discretion to allocate fishing quotas as he saw fit. Esau's actions let to the demise of Namsov and the loss of thousands of Namibian jobs.Namibia Fishing Industries and Fishermen's Workers Union secretary-general David Imbili, when asked what his union would demand from Kawana, played his cards close to his chest. He merely said the meeting would discuss the way forward. His union had a recognition agreement with the ministry of fisheries and represented the Namsov employees who were laid off. Paulus Hango, secretary-general of the Namibia Seamen & Allied Workers Union, said he would demand a proper investigation into the Fishrot scandal.“Fishrot must be investigated and the law must take its course. We are going to see whether we have institutions that are strong and fair,” he said. The other issues Hango wants to be addressed are fringe benefits and job security for local fishermen.Hango accused Spanish fishing companies of employing Spaniards to do menial jobs that could be done by Namibians.The chairman of the Namibian Fisherman United Association (NFUA), Mathew Lungameni, said there had been several unsuccessful attempts to get Esau to see reason. Erongo governor Cleophas Mutjavikua last week told The Namibian that he had repeatedly spoken to Esau. “In all these meetings, the minister did not indicate that he would not attend to the matter. In fact, he agreed that something would be done about it. But the action was never there,” the governor was quoted as saying.“Also, what contributed to the loss of jobs was the result of the system introduced by the minister,” Mutjavikua said.Namsov had to sell four of its vessels and laid off more than 1 000 workers because of the loss of its quota.President Hage Geingob has directed that all fishermen who lost their jobs should be reinstated. OGONE TLHAGE

Lost income high on fishermen's agenda

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-18

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Lost income high on fishermen's agenda

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-18

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