Andrew Kathindi
Speaker of the National Assembly, Peter Katjavivi, has refused to apportion blame on himself and members of parliament (MPs) for allowing fishy amendments to the Marine Resources Act to pass through parliament under their watch.
Amendments to the Act gave former Fisheries Minister, Bernard Esau, exclusive power to issue fishing quotas, which later gave way to what became nationally known as Fishrot, after several individuals, including Esau and former Justice Minister, Sacky Shanghala were implicated in a money laundering scheme worth over N$150 million.
Katjavivi told the Windhoek Observer that any law brought before parliament is brought in good faith and debated by all the different political parties represented in the National Assembly.
“So, if there was an issue that people were not happy about it, it ought to have been highlighted then. I’m not going to blame anybody for what happened. If the bill had some loopholes of that kind, it ought to have been pinpointed there and corrected there. The fact that that was not done should not become an issue where you engage in a blame game,” the Speaker of Parliament said.
He added that if the bill in question is to be brought for revision of some kind, it will be brought in the spirit of transparency “because that bill was brought to Parliament in transparency, tabled and everything. So, if there were members of parliament who had issues with that bill, they would have raised those issues then, you cannot do it retrospectively.
In 2015, Shanghala, then Attorney General, introduced amendments to the Marine Resources Act of 2000 to allow government to take over a larger role in its control of marine resources to “provide sovereign rights of the state and further control of marine resources and for the matters incidental thereto”. At the time, Shanghala said that this was done as “the amendment bill tends to change the county’s destiny by placing the resources in the hands of the state. We are affirming the governments relationship with is resources.”
The powers allowed then fisheries minister, through the state-owned fishing firm National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor), to distribute fishing rights and quotas without legal restrictions.
Quizzed on his role, Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader, McHenry Venaani who was an MP when the amendments were passed by Parliament, accused Katjavivi of not being completely truthful on the matter.
“The speaker must be very truthful about what he is talking about. You cannot table a bill a day before a motion. We did raise our concerns with it and it is not the first bill where we did so, there were others. We even argued that a board should be appointed to review the issuing of fishing quotas,” he said.
He added that the bill was rushed on purpose to mitigate any potential opposition and that Shanghala knew exactly what he was doing to table amendments to a bill a day before it passes.
“Not to forget, this happened at a time when SWAPO held 2/3rds majority so they steam-rolled us. They used their muscle. If it happens now, you can blame us because now, we have power to block a bill. We need to create checks and balances, that is key. We allowed one person to empower a minister to be able to benefit himself and his cronies.”
