Raiding the Maternity Ward for Profits

SARDINES ARE GONE forever.

Tuna is kaput.

Maasbanker or horse mackerel is next.

The cleanout continues.

All in one generation.

All because of unabated greed, the extinction of key marine species is likely to happen within the first few decades of Namibia as an independent nation.

The latest developments indicate that once again the Namibian government is willing to sacrifice fish critical to the economy and the ocean’s ecological survival to line the pockets of a few greedy individuals who were given so-called rights and quotas for free.

The Namibian this week quoted fisheries minister Derek Klazen confirming his support for companies to extract horse mackerel in an area of the Atlantic Ocean where catching has been prohibited for 25 years following the collapse of the pilchard/sardine fish stock.

“What is true, however, is that the ministry has besieged the Cabinet with a submission to alert it and seek its concurrence for the ministry to effect temporary reprieve by lifting trawling restrictions within the 200m isobath,” Klazen said this week.

Translation: Klazen wants to unleash the horse mackerel trawlers into the maternity ward where fish lay eggs and minor species were left relatively safe to recover.

Instead, Klazen and the government want to satisfy Swapo and its cronies’ boundless greed for profiteering.

It is seemingly not enough that the ‘fishing rights’ and quotas were given at the expense of tax revenue collection in an opaque patronage system that Swapo has pushed since independence under the cloak of black economic empowerment.

Two companies most set to benefit from fishing in the restricted area are Gendev Fishing and Princess Brand Processing (PBP), formerly Seaflower Pelagic Processing (SPP) of the Fishrot scandal.

Among Gendev’ shareholders are Swapo itself and Sustjie Mbumba, wife of state vice president Nangolo Mbumba, in addition to other individuals in positions of power.

Princess Brand is owned by Adriaan Louw, a South African businessman who hatched a partnership with the Namibian state-owned enterprise Fishcor that was used as a conduit for the questionable flow of money in the Fishrot scheme.

The Namibian High Court declared Louw’s partnership with Fishcor as “parasitic” after he sued the government to stop terminating the business arrangement with the parastatal.

The only reason Klazen, and president Hage Geingob’s Cabinet would entertain lifting the restriction of fishing in a breeding zone is to line the coffers of Swapo and its cronies.

Unfortunately such a move is short-sighted. It suggests that Swapo’s focus is to maximise profit instead of the preservation of vital national resources.

Horse mackerel stocks have been dwindling, with evidence suggesting it will easily collapse the way pilchards did, and sardine canning factories shut down within 25 years of Namibia’s independence.

The tuna and hake in southern Namibia are shadows of the industries they once were. In fact, a large swathe of the fishing industry is unlikely to survive the greedy onslaught of which the modus operandi was exposed through the highly sophisticated looting of the Fishrot scheme.

A few thousand individual Namibians have replaced the foreigners who raided the ocean before independence. These politically connected individuals treat Namibia’s Atlantic Ocean as their personal real estate.

So, they sweat the asset for maximum profit.

Minister Klazen argues there is no law prohibiting trawling within the breeding zone. He should indeed rush to tighten marine management tools into law if that’s the best way to keep the insatiable greed at bay.

Protection of the fish species, the ecology and the long-term sustainability of the economy should be paramount so that future generations have something to live off.

The Namibian government should stop reloading their Fishrot weapons for the sake of those yet to be born.

The argument about preserving jobs is a ruse. Despite mega profits the companies have been raking in, overall job numbers in the fishing industry have been dwindling, with more Namibians adding to unemployment statistics.

Politicians should remember the following African proverb: “The world is not ours, the earth is not ours. It’s a treasure we hold in trust for future generations.”

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