This left the organisers with stacks of conference bags and brochures printed with the date of May 20-22, and having to cancel hotel rooms already booked, The Namibian has learnt.

The conference was shifted to early July due to the Cabinet retreat that starts in Walvis Bay today.

The date of the regional conference had been set earlier and approved by Cabinet.

"We only heard from Namibia on April 30 that they wanted the date shifted to July, which was a huge problem for us because the ministers, government officials and the private sector from at least eight southern African countries were to attend, hotel rooms were booked and travel arrangements finalised," an organiser from the British Department for International Development (DFID) said over the weekend.

The DFID supports the development of an African policy to tackle illegal fishing, which causes revenue losses of N$7,5 billion a year.

The need for strengthened fisheries governance at national and regional level has been increasingly recognised by the international community as one of the main requirements to stop illegal fishing.

As the first step in this process Dr Abraham Iyambo, Namibia's Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, led the way on behalf of the coastal states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by harnessing this support for the Stop Illegal Fishing Programme.

Attempts to obtain comment from the Ministry were unsuccessful.

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