Staff Reporter
A GROUP of fisherman formerly employed by Namsov and Heineste Namibia, the companies which had been affected by “Fishrot” scandal held a protest outside the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, in which they bemoaned the fact that new fishing companies allocated quota’s by government have not paid their salaries in three months.
At least 1 000 workers lost their jobs after quotas were diverted away from Namsov to Icelandic fishing company, Samherji, whilst Heineste Namibia which is a subsidiary of Samherji company also closed and retrenched workers.
The fisherman who staged a protest infront of the fisheries ministry chastised the Minister of Fisheries for allocating to Merius Cormorant, Iyaloo Women’s investment, Hangana and Novanam as per the letter dated 21 January 202, under the the government’s employment redress programme (Gerd).
Mining, Metal, Maritime, and Construction Union (MMMC), Joseph ||Garoëb, General Secretary said that At Iyaloo Women Investments, workers were not paid for more than two months.
“We the Namsov/Heineste ex-employees under the re-dress program as initiated by the government were employed by Cavema fishing and after by Overberg fishing till the contract came to an end on 31 December 2024. We were the lowest paid employees under the re-dress program by the said company, Cavema, under another company called Shore recruit Pty Ltd. The honourable Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources was well aware that the contract between us and Cavema will come to an end,” //Garoeb said.
He added that workers expressed their willingness to be absorbed by fishing company Blue Chromics which agreed to pay the fisherman a minimum of N$ 8 500 workers, whist the current companies pay workers N$ 4 500 with poor working conditions. “We came with a bus we don’t know how we will go back, we did not get paid for three months… how did you give this quota’s to this companies with any contractual obligation. Secondly we should verify that the people allocated this quota’s are the rightful owners of these quota’s, thirdly we want to know if there is an interest in the allocation of this quota’s, we are starting to see there might be an interest. If there is a personal interest, people should withdraw themselves from the allocations of quotas from this quota’s.” //Garoeb said.
Derek Klazen receiving the petition said that the question that arises is why Blue Chromics. “They talk about confliction, but Blue Chromics are they not conflicted themselves, why are they forcing,” the minister questioned.
He added that fishermen standing infront of his office had been offered employment by the companies newly allocated fishing quota’s and could have been on their third paycheck by now.
He added that the ministry and the government decided to look into the plight of workers and offered quota’s to companies in the employment redress program.
“The group standing here is not from the Okapale fisherman. Those are the one’s that went through the strike of 2015, lost their jobs, and houses. The government assisted them. They took a decision to have their government re-dress programme, whereby more than 1300 fisherman that lost their jobs were employed. All of them, are even at this companies mentioned here. There was no talk of conflict in this companies. Those people are there, they are receiving their salaries monthly. The N$ 4500 is the minimum the companies should pay their workers.,” Klazen said.
He added that there were about 150 fishermen that was working at Cavema, and that this contract came to an end at 31rst of December 2024.
“This contract is renewable. If government didn’t find any flaws in this contract, it means this contract should continue, but unfortunately the workers said they wanted to move from Cavema, and the consultation with the ministry and Cavema did not happen,” Klazen said.
He added that some of the protesting fishermen are still getting paid by Cavema but wish to move to another company.
