Fishing quotas and the scramble for survival

DISGRUNTLED QUOTA APPLICANT WRITES:

I wonder in the first place why H. E. President Dr. Hage Geingob was so over-generous to come up with transparency and to open up the competition in this fraternity.

That would always be easier said than done. During that time it was his 2nd to 3rd year in office and he had a lot of new ideas, although many are not yet implemented till date.

I thought it was a joke when I heard about bribery in this sector, as early as February 2018. Some might have been well aware of it before that. I'm not playing tribal cards as per the usual notion of abrupt accusations.

However, I'm well aware of the gravity of damages and harm, caused by discrimination, tribalism and regionalism etc., if not reversed apartheid.

The administration of our Government is tainted by institutionalised corruption inherited from the institutionally formalised policies of apartheid in which tribal identity is very important.

The impacts thereof is very evident today and it is manifesting itself in tribal politics and solidarity, remembering us of the Bantustan policies and coercive tactics. If it was not for Johannes Stefanssón, these hegemonic, corrupt practices would have continued for the next 15 years and even beyond the tenure of office of the Fishrot accused.

I have listened with keen interest and very attentively to the first speech of Dr. Albert Kawana, in December 2019 when he was appointed Acting Fisheries Minister. He was talking in the favour of the existing major players in the industry, which he is today referring to as entities owning factories, employing about 7 000 people and owning big assets etc.

One good thing is that Dr. Kawana mentioned the set criteria, provided it was honored and respected in the allocation of new fishing rights.

We have heard that the performance of the ruling SWAPO Party during the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections was a key selection criteria, which is almost becoming the truth.

As much as I concur with the fact that the cake is too small and would-be beneficiaries too many, why are we allowing some players to benefit for more than 20 years, since this Ministry was established in 2000. Why was it kept a secret that some big companies were permitted to carry on with business to avert retrenchments, labour disputes etc.?

The Government must come clean, play open cards with us and stop discriminatory, roguish, preferential treatment of a selected few. Not all of us can be fooled every time.

We know for a fact that the SWAPO Party performed very poorly in the Hardap and //Kharas Regions.

The few, well-known and connected elite create empowerment companies to loot state resources and protect the interest of each other. Thus, we are left with no other option than to rally behind the leader of the official opposition and the president of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), Mr. McHenry Venaani who vows to defend the interest of the 5 000 prospective applicants, whose aspirations are in limbo.

The slogan “One Namibia, One Nation” was merely a liberation struggle slogan and its meaning and value has changed in the economic struggle 30 years after Independence. We cannot belong to one political party, one tribe, one religion, one color, one region and one house. Above all we all are residents of the same, one brave Namibia.

We must start to accept and recognize the human dignity, social up-bringing and social background, cultural norms and practices of each other in order to live together in peace, tranquility and harmony.