Fisheries minister Albert Kawana said 1 300 jobs are ready for absorption after six fishing companies offered their best terms to employ them. The ministry of labour will coordinate the placement.
he said that he consulted extensively, the unions, committee members. Some workers decided to elect their own spokespersons.
When the President learnt about the plight of their unfortunate citizens he directed him that these must be employed. Now he just wants to apologise that it took a little bit of time due to extended consultations.
Kawana said he is happy to announce that he has concluded consultations and reported back to the President and cabinet.
1300 jobs are ready for absorption, And this consists of 6 companies that have offered best terms and will cost government 19 850 metric tonnes of horse mackerel and 5 816 metric tonnes f hake broken into, However, placement of the fishermen will be done by Labour ministry, that is their line function.
Kawana said that the process might be slow because Walvis Bay is under lockdown but by the end of June the workers will have their employment.
A decision was taken that if they close down these companies with factories, vessels and workers, it would be catastrophic. A decision was taken that they are sustained until 31st March and the normal process take place in terms of new rights to be granted.
“I am still sorting out a lot of things, To amend the law to bring more transparency and accountability”, he said.
Kawana said that when he was appointed, the president always said accountability and transparency equal trust and this must be maintained.
He is hopeful that once all these are sorted out, legal and administrative technicalities, this will be one of the best-run industries which will benefit foremost Namibians.
Kawana added that old companies can not just pack and go, if a company applies for licence renewal, it will be considered under new terms, provided they meet certain conditions.
“On top of this, I was very careful. I requested a written legal opinion from the AG office. I was advised by the AG to say those companies have a right to apply like any applicant. But they must comply with the law like any other applicant.
“Additionally, in the past, there used to be internal ministerial processes, a decision was taken to say we need to do things differently and engage impartial credible institutions to process applications to avoid corruption and favouritism. Other companies quoted N$39 million to do this. Unam quoted N$5 million.
All 14 regions should benefit. We must learn to share and eat together. 100 companies had expired rights. After processing by Unam, 81 existing companies were cleared to be awarded because they have vessels and 7000 employees. 104 new applicants were awarded. 56.2% are new applicants. We had 38 enumerators all degree holders specialised in IT, economics and mathematics to make sure every aspect of the application is assessed.
