Something fishy going on

The only smoking and fish processing factory situated in Ondangwa had to close its doors after its fish supply was terminated due to a disagreement between the partners. Smokie Mack founder Irvin Summers alleged he suffered a huge financial loss and had to close shop due to personal differences with a director of Reho Fishing, Ralph Blaauw. “I was forced to trim the staff complement from 21 to seven. The supply of fish became a huge nightmare since the supplier Reho Fishing withdrew from the deal we had,” he said. “The costs to maintain the company became too high and I subsequently resolved to close it after an effort to get assistance from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources failed in February 2017,” Summers said he established Smokie Mack with the sole purpose to create employment in the remote north of Namibia and add to value to horse mackerel through additional processing. The company specialised in smoking and packaging of fish. Fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau paid a visit to the facility in 2016 and was impressed with the standards he witnessed. “I built the business up from scratch and manufactured the processing equipment including highly sophisticated smoking ovens myself. Reho Fishing (as partner) undertook to supply the fish and capital injection for expanding, to expedite the processing and the employment creation aspects. I managed the business and had to provide the technical expertise,” he said. Summers added that the chairman of Reho Fishing, Clive Willemse and Blaauw, approached him in 2015 for a business venture and initiated negotiations under the auspices of Reho Fishing. “I was under the impression that I had entered into a joint venture with Reho Fishing as a company and not with individuals with vested interests.” According to Summers, he realised the need to have Smokie Mack registered and approached Blaauw and Willemse in order to have this done. He travelled to Windhoek to execute the process since the company was already operational for one year and employed 30 persons. Fruitless“Willemse and Blaauw were not available despite an agreement we reached one month earlier to conclude the process of registering Smokie Mack. I continually requested to meet with any of the other shareholders to no avail. This made me question the composition of the company and its shareholders, since the funding and the fish supplied to Smokie Mack were provided by Reho Fishing.” He proceeded and registered Smokie Mack as a close corporation (CC). Willemse and Blaauw subsequently flew in and had a meeting with him in Ondangwa. They discussed the shareholding composition of Smokie Mack and wanted to know how the shares would be divided since the company belonged in its entirety to one individual. “They wanted Smokey Mack to function as a Reho Fishing subsidiary. I realised that should this materialise I would be merely a worker and not a shareholder of the company I started. An agreement was then reached whereby the Smokie Mack shareholding would be split between Blaauw, Willemse and myself.” The explanation for this was that a CC (Smokie Mack) could not merge with a Proprietary Limited (Pty Ltd) (Reho Fishing) and Summers produced a document that was prepared and signed on 22 August 2016 awarding equal shareholding (33.33%) between the individuals, instead of the company Reho Fishing, as proof. He subsequently received a letter on 22 August 2016 informing him that the board of Reho Fishing had resolved to transfer its 66% interest in Smokie Mack to Willemse and Blaauw as equal shareholders. The letter signed by Willemse in his capacity as chairman of Reho Fishing stated that he and Blaauw will take over all assets, interests, debts and the loan account of Reho Fishing in equal proportions. A fight erupted after the joint venture RDS Fishing supplied fish via Reho Fishing towards Smokie Mack. Summers alleged that this consignment of fish never arrived at its intended destination, Smokie Mack. He demanded to know who would be held accountable for the missing cargo and this resulted in a deadlock between the parties. According to Summers, he decided to approach the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to have the matter resolved and informed Willemse and Blaauw of his intentions. “Suddenly Willemse and Blaauw decided to withdraw. They tabled a termination agreement and signed off the company with assets and a cash component over to me.” Willemse approached Summers on the 27 September 2016 with a transfer of project assets which stipulated that Reho Fishing agreed to transfer all current assets in possession and operating at Smokie Mack to him (Summers) in his personal capacity. StandoffReho Fishing also agreed to pay N$100 000 and stated that it would not be held liable for any loss, damage once the agreement/contract was signed. On 24 October Summers received another termination of partnership agreement letter on the official Reho Fishing letterhead signed by Willemse (chair) and Blaauw (director). “This confused me. After further investigations I discovered that the company information submitted to the permanen secretary of fisheries in December 2011 from the auditors of Reho Fishing (Grant Thorton Neuhaus) showed that Blaauw was never a shareholder and Willemse owned 15%. It also came to light that Blaauw owned 50% on 1 March 2014. Is this in line with the Harambee Prosperity Plan?” Summers alleges that the shares of two former holders (a primary school and a kids care centre) based in Rehoboth were transferred to Blaauw. “What is also confusing is that Blaauw was never an original shareholder with the application for the horse mackerel quota granted to Reho Fishing,” he said. Reho Fishing is in a joint venture with four other companies under Mack Fishing, which receives a horse mackerel quota from the ministry of fisheries. Tight-lipped Willemse was contacted to comment on the allegations levelled against him and Blaauw and referred the matter to Blaauw. An effort to meet with Blaauw to discuss the allegations during a trip to Walvis Bay did not materialise. He subsequently referred this reporter to his lawyer Richard Metcalfe and said arrangements could be made to view documentation relevant to the issue at hand. Efforts to set up a meeting with Metcalfe also came to naught.The deputy sheriff, however, delivered a letter addressed to Summers on 16 June 2017 stating that Metcalfe Attorneys were acting on instructions of Reho Fishing. Metcalfe claimed Reho Fishing initiated the Smokie Mack Project in 2015 and engaged Summers to join the project in which he could operate on a 33.3% profit share basis. Reho Fishing, the lawyer says, subsequently built and paid for a factory on leased premises in Ondangwa. He added Summers was then relocated from Walvis Bay to Ondangwa and provided with fully furnished accommodation solely on the expense of Reho Fishing. The company also purchased the necessary machinery for Smokie Mack trading's requirements at the factory in Ondangwa, the letter states.The business was established and became a profitable venture with Summers' technical acumen. “During the course of business, acrimony developed between Summers and the client. This acerbic relationship was further aggravated when it was discovered that Summers had registered Smokie Mack trading as a close corporation in which he held 100% members interest together with all assets, equipment and the lease agreement,” Metcalfe charged. “Summers' self-serving conduct was noted with misery and disdain by the board members of Reho Fishing whose trust in him was betrayed. After debating the matter the board decided to leave Summers with the close corporation and without instituting any legal proceedings. It now appears that Summers' lack of corporate acumen resulted in the closure of the factory and his reallocation to Walvis Bay.”Summers is also accused of making “unfounded and ungrounded false” allegations against Blaauw. According to Metcalfe, the conduct of Summers amounts to the crime of extortion. “There is simply no money due and owed to Summers and the client will not accede to any demands. Summers effectively hijacked Smokie Mack Trading from the client and should he proceed with attempting to extort the client and Blaauw, criminal proceedings will be instituted against him in both matters. “The client is not interested in civil proceedings since Summers is a man of straw the letter concluded.” OTIS FINCK

Something fishy going on

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Something fishy going on

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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