By: Dwight Links
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on Tuesday launched its third report examining the sectoral damage caused by corruption in the fishing sector.
The latest analysis focused on the Government Employment Redress Programme (GERP), which was aimed at employing fishermen who lost their jobs back in 2015, and aiding others who were impacted by the Fishrot scandal in the country. The GERP was launched in 2020 as a result of this industry scandal.
IPPR Researcher, Frederico Links, outlined the impact of what GERP tried to examine.
“The analysis is based on the human rights impact from the fisheries corruption that has dogged the sector. This is a specific focus on what has happened to households and communities who relied on the fishing sector,” Links explained.
Speaking on why the GERP took centre stage for the IPPR’s latest report, Links noted that the programme was mentioned on numerous occasions in deliberations between various stakeholders.
“The feelings around the government employment redress were very strong during the surveying and questionnaire process for the reports. We decided to look at what the GERP is and what is happening under this programme, ” he said.
The GERP is a government initiative which emerged from a cabinet decision on 23 June 2020.
“This decision directly resolved that the two ministries of Fisheries and Labour should find a way to secure full-time permanent employment of specified NAMSOV retrenched employees and those who lost their employment for their participation from an illegal strike that happened in 2015. This is language that we have taken from contracts stipulated in these documents signed between the ministries and various designated fishing companies,” explained Links on the background of the GERP.
The initiative was gazetted six months after Fishrot erupted in Namibia and blew open the internal dealings of marine resources.
According to Links, the GERP tries to engineer labour reintegration in a specific sector. He noted that this is a unique initiative, as there is no evidence around the world of anything similar having taken place.
FURTHER FALLOUT
Links indicated in the timeline from 2020 the various efforts that the government tried to get the reintegration of the fishermen going.
“Late 2020 to 2021 we saw the initial quota allocations to certain companies, and the specification of these workers from NAMSOV to be employed because of the 2015 industrial action. Almost immediately, issues around GERP started appearing. Unions and civil society began raising concerns over poor oversight, exploitation, and the lack of transparency from both the government and companies partaking in the scheme,” cited Links from the reports’ findings.
Following compliance reviews conducted by the government in 2022, mass resignation of workers served as evidence of said poor oversight and underappreciation.
A national select committee was established to understand why the mass resignation happened under the employment redress programme. The committee produced and submitted a report to then Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Derek Klazen.
“In 2023 we saw the scheme continuing, and this time – allegedly – there were stricter agreements. It seems the ministries began emphasising to the companies that full-time employment is the aim for the fishermen. This is when associations of the fishermen became vocal about this scheme and said that there should be reforms,” the report adds.
This led to 2024 where another major event kicked off in the sector regarding the desired impact of the scheme.
“We saw the second wave of mass resignations. And once again, the issues were similar to the first wave. At this period, the government had reported that over 2,000 fishermen were employed under the scheme.”
Issues persist around the programme and the sector as a whole, as the beginning of 2025 saw fishermen’s representatives lament about consultations which took place without their knowledge or presence.
