Posted by Jade McClune on February 13, 2014
The way that fishing quotas are allocated is causing much hardship, inequality and hunger in our communities, while a few fat cats get to play “who wants to be a millionaire?” with the precious resources of the nation.
The way Namibia’s marine resources are being plundered is truly a national disgrace and possibly the biggest and longest-running scam in the country.
Corruption, nepotism, favouritism are strongly suspected. Politicians from far-away regions are bickering, fighting and suing each other over fishing quotas, as if they have some special entitlement to the wealth and resources of the sea, but able seamen who have been fishing here for decades will tell you that they are completely in the dark as to how these rights are awarded.
Fishing rights are currently used as part of a system of political patronage; as a means to reward loyal friends and to punish political enemies. Some have become instant millionaires by selling their rights without as much as ever catching a single fish. They simply sell their quota to the highest bidder and wallah… instant wealth and fame.
Instead of enriching a few greedy individuals, in future only bona fide community organisations and trusts should be allowed to apply for fishing rights on behalf of certain sections of society.
For example, all the schools in the region can form a Schools Trust. The Trust can then apply for quota and use the millions of dollars they get in return to upgrade, renovate and maintain their school facilities without having to stand with a begging bowl in front of the newly-made millionaires.
The same goes for the youth and the elderly; we should set up a Regional Pensioners Trust, which can apply and use the funds to build and maintain pensioners’ homes and facilities.
Equally, a hospitals trust, a women’s trust, a housing trust, and other community-based (not-for-profit organisations) should be granted fishing rights to achieve definite social goals, such as fighting homelessness, countering malnutrition, providing places of safety for women and children, facilities for the youth.
We produce so much fish it is a total disgrace that people can starve in this country; that children, pensioners, and poor people are dying of hunger while we export thousands of tonnes of protein every week.
It is time to abolish the old and unfair system of giving fishing rights to private individuals. The process is not transparent. If it were, the ministry would have already made public the full list of current fishing rights holders.
It is a great shame that the ordinary people in this country do not really benefit from our rich resources of the sea. We produce protein mainly for export, while our own people are going hungry.
For argument’s sake, if the horse mackerel catch for the year was divided equally among all Namibian citizens, each person would get around 450kg of fish; not to mention hake, maarsbanker, monk and all the other ‘commercial catches’.
It is not just about access to fish, but moreover it is about the right to fish. A right, which has been treated as a special privilege reserved for the lucky few. But there is no transparency in the allocation of these rights.
The process is mired in controversy and the suspicion is widespread that fishing rights, like mining and exploration licenses, are used as a means of rewarding the most loyal supporters of the ruling party.
Namibia is one of the countries with the greatest income inequality in the world. The way that fishing rights are currently allocated is actually deepening the crisis of inequality, by elevating a few privileged people to the realms of opulence and splendour, while condemning the masses to a life of grinding poverty, of perpetually empty and aching stomachs.
Through a mechanism called “transfer pricing” many of these fishing companies also find clever ways to avoid paying tax in Namibia by selling the fish caught here to their own subsidiaries abroad at a very low price and then declaring that they made no (or little) taxable profits here. The scam must come to an end.
Namibia is not really a poor country. It is very rich in resources, but our policies are so very poor that they can only produce poor people and poor outcomes. We’ve come to the point where the whole system of fishing “quotas for friends” strongly resembles legalised robbery and theft of the nation’s wealth by a few well-connected individuals.
The perpetual robbery must end, but most likely it will only end when the masses of people realise what is going on and rise up to put an end to it.
The way that fishing quotas are allocated is causing much hardship, inequality and hunger in our communities, while a few fat cats get to play “who wants to be a millionaire?” with the precious resources of the nation.
The way Namibia’s marine resources are being plundered is truly a national disgrace and possibly the biggest and longest-running scam in the country.
Corruption, nepotism, favouritism are strongly suspected. Politicians from far-away regions are bickering, fighting and suing each other over fishing quotas, as if they have some special entitlement to the wealth and resources of the sea, but able seamen who have been fishing here for decades will tell you that they are completely in the dark as to how these rights are awarded.
Fishing rights are currently used as part of a system of political patronage; as a means to reward loyal friends and to punish political enemies. Some have become instant millionaires by selling their rights without as much as ever catching a single fish. They simply sell their quota to the highest bidder and wallah… instant wealth and fame.
Instead of enriching a few greedy individuals, in future only bona fide community organisations and trusts should be allowed to apply for fishing rights on behalf of certain sections of society.
For example, all the schools in the region can form a Schools Trust. The Trust can then apply for quota and use the millions of dollars they get in return to upgrade, renovate and maintain their school facilities without having to stand with a begging bowl in front of the newly-made millionaires.
The same goes for the youth and the elderly; we should set up a Regional Pensioners Trust, which can apply and use the funds to build and maintain pensioners’ homes and facilities.
Equally, a hospitals trust, a women’s trust, a housing trust, and other community-based (not-for-profit organisations) should be granted fishing rights to achieve definite social goals, such as fighting homelessness, countering malnutrition, providing places of safety for women and children, facilities for the youth.
We produce so much fish it is a total disgrace that people can starve in this country; that children, pensioners, and poor people are dying of hunger while we export thousands of tonnes of protein every week.
It is time to abolish the old and unfair system of giving fishing rights to private individuals. The process is not transparent. If it were, the ministry would have already made public the full list of current fishing rights holders.
It is a great shame that the ordinary people in this country do not really benefit from our rich resources of the sea. We produce protein mainly for export, while our own people are going hungry.
For argument’s sake, if the horse mackerel catch for the year was divided equally among all Namibian citizens, each person would get around 450kg of fish; not to mention hake, maarsbanker, monk and all the other ‘commercial catches’.
It is not just about access to fish, but moreover it is about the right to fish. A right, which has been treated as a special privilege reserved for the lucky few. But there is no transparency in the allocation of these rights.
The process is mired in controversy and the suspicion is widespread that fishing rights, like mining and exploration licenses, are used as a means of rewarding the most loyal supporters of the ruling party.
Namibia is one of the countries with the greatest income inequality in the world. The way that fishing rights are currently allocated is actually deepening the crisis of inequality, by elevating a few privileged people to the realms of opulence and splendour, while condemning the masses to a life of grinding poverty, of perpetually empty and aching stomachs.
Through a mechanism called “transfer pricing” many of these fishing companies also find clever ways to avoid paying tax in Namibia by selling the fish caught here to their own subsidiaries abroad at a very low price and then declaring that they made no (or little) taxable profits here. The scam must come to an end.
Namibia is not really a poor country. It is very rich in resources, but our policies are so very poor that they can only produce poor people and poor outcomes. We’ve come to the point where the whole system of fishing “quotas for friends” strongly resembles legalised robbery and theft of the nation’s wealth by a few well-connected individuals.
The perpetual robbery must end, but most likely it will only end when the masses of people realise what is going on and rise up to put an end to it.
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