Fisheries and Namibia’s Lottery Capitalism

ROMAN GRYNBERGTHERE IS NO incident in Namibia’s history that has undermined the basic trust between the people of Namibia and the government more than the Fishrot scandal.

How do I know this, you ask? I hear it from my students at the University of Namibia and the way in which they talk about government policy.

Their immediate assumption about any government action, from road construction to internet tenders, is that decisions are not taken for the benefit of Namibians, but for a few powerful and often already rich individuals.

Trust is an incredibly valuable political asset. If there is trust and the government makes demands of the citizenry, the people will comply of their own free will without any need for violence or guns from the police and army. When trust is gone, all that is left is force.

For this reason, (new) fisheries minister Albert Kawana must be congratulated on his announcement that he intends to publicly auction quotas previously available to Fishcor, and which were allegedly the basis for corruption.

Virtually all Namibian economists have called for an end to secret quotas and for a public and transparent auctioning system. However, what was not said by the good minister was whether all fish quotas would be auctioned, or only those previously allocated to Fishcor, which are currently the subject of alleged grand corruption in the courts.

Fishrot is only a small part of the problem.

There is also the ‘petty’ corruption whereby the government would award fishing rights to some 185 companies that applied in 2018. This includes 104 new applicants and 81 previous rights holders. These beneficiaries were selected from 5 176 applications submitted in 2018.

The 5 176 Namibians and their companies applied for quotas, not because they wanted to go fishing, but because they understood ‘the system’ and how to make quick money. When Bernhard Esau was fisheries minister, it was extremely difficult to find out which companies got these quotas and who their beneficial owners were.

Are the 185 companies actually going to fish for horse mackerel or hake? In the biggest fisheries sector, which is horse mackerel, there are only eight operating fishing companies in Namibia. What will happen to the fish quotas is what has happened for years. These are on-sold to the actual fishermen.

When I researched this three years ago, the price at Walvis Bay was N$3 000 a tonne of quota for horse mackerel. A total of 350 000 tonnes of horse mackerel is caught each year in Namibian waters.

The price currently paid depends on supply and demand and timing. Industry sources say the price can vary from N$600 to upwards of N$3 000 a tonne. But if you win the lottery and get a government quota for horse mackerel of say 1 000 tonnes you can become an instant millionaire. You could buy a house and a nice car and never have to dirty your hands catching even one horse mackerel.

Fisheries is a business and it is one of only two large sustainable sectors Namibia has – fisheries and tourism.

Fisheries directly and indirectly creates thousands of jobs and could create more if managed in a professional manner rather than as a lottery for the politically connected. Fisheries earns the government almost nothing, because it virtually gives away the quotas to those connected enough. So who gets these quotas?

There is a remarkably large number of fishmongers sitting in our parliament.

According to the public disclosures of our MPs, some 24 out of a total of 104 are in the fisheries business.

The real question is: With such a large number of MPs with fisheries interests, will there ever be real reform of the sector?

It is this ‘petty’ corruption that is most destructive of public trust. These small multimillion-dollar quotas are, however, more corrosive and damaging to the political fabric of Namibian society than Fishrot, because it undermines the belief that the citizenry have that those whom they elect are there for any reason other than their own personal enrichment.

History and the Namibian people are watching what minister Kawana will do to reform the fisheries sector. How it is reformed will help historians decide whether those who rule were ever serious about tackling corruption. If the minister really wants to clean up fisheries and make money for all the people of Namibia, not just the privileged few, all these petty quotas have to be abandoned.

Naturally Namibia must have a total allowable catch (TAC), because we have to ensure that the amount of fish harvested in Namibian waters is done sustainably and that we do not destroy our fisheries by overfishing. What needs to happen is for the quotas to be publicly auctioned on a multi-year basis to only a preselected group of genuine fishing companies – perhaps no more than eight to 10 companies in the case of horse mackerel.

These companies should be big enough to be able to compete and must not be allowed to trade these quotas unless it is to one of the other preselected companies. The names and owners of the companies, their quota bid, the basis of the ministry’s decision on who gets a quota and how much they actually catch should be available immediately on the ministry’s website. These quotas should be given on a long-term basis with first priority to Namibian or joint-venture companies who hire Namibian workers, not Icelandic or Spanish fishing companies.

Over the last five years, Namibia has become poorer and poorer by the year and we can no longer afford the luxury of handing out fishing quotas to a privileged few.

Fisheries is a business that must be treated as such, not as a lottery where only the powerful and privileged can buy tickets.

All that can be hoped for is that when the minister releases the details of his reforms, all Namibians will benefit.

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