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FISHROT WHISTLE-BLOWER STEFANSSON TELLS HIS STORY (PART 1)

Stefansson’s Arrival in Namibia
• During 2011, Stefansson says he and Ingvar Juliusson met a person whose name he cannot remember. That person had promised them that he could link them up with influential people in the fishing sector. Later after failing to establish the links, the person introduced the Samherji officials to Tamson Hatuikulipi. This meeting was at the Hilton Hotel where Stefansson and Juliusson were staying.
• To prove that he was close to the fisheries minister, Stefansson says Tamson produced his wedding photos. Through Tamson, Stefansson says, they got to meet all the rest of the key people.
Meetings
• After meeting the key people, Stefansson says there were several meetings attended by James, Shanghala and Tamson mostly. Esau did not attend the meetings. “They told me they were having discussion and planning with him and sometimes some other with him and sometimes politicians (as I understood high-level people in politics, although their names were never revealed to me).” James and Tamson briefed Stefansson after some of the meetings.
• He met Esau a few times mostly when the Namgomar Pesca project was being discussed. He says he attended all the meetings together with James and Tamson and Shanghala would join sometimes.
• The meetings where the Namgomar Pesca project was discussed with Angola were initiated by Shanghala and James on behalf of Esau. Primarily Shanghala was involved. Ricardo Gustavo later joined them for the meetings that were held at James’ house in Windhoek.
• “I usually drove from Walvis Bay to Windhoek for these meetings to meet at JH residence. On occasions, some meetings were just between me and JH. This was in preparation to find a way for the key people in Namibia to get a horse mackerel quota and to ensure that this quota is increased in later years to benefit of all the role players for a number of years.
• During 2012 and 2014, Bernard Esau had limited powers to allocate quotas except to those who had fishing rights and to limited government vehicles such as the fish consumption trust company and to fishing agreements.
• There was a fishing agreement with Mozambique for horse mackerel, but no quota was ever given. There was another quota for Cuba and again no quota was given.
• On 18 June 2014, Namibia and Angola entered into a bilateral agreement through the two countries fisheries ministries. Esau represented Namibia while Victoria de Barros Neto represented Angola.
• This MoU was gazetted in 2015.
• Stefansson says due to his extensive involvement in the fishing sector and participation in setting up and managing the deal, the agreement was meant to benefit corrupt people of Namibia, Angola and Samherji.

Wonder Guchu

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