The re-employment of the striking fishermen at Walvis Bay will not see them return to sea.
This was revealed on Thursday by Cavema Fishing director Robert Shimwoshili during a meeting with the parliamentary standing committee, on the mass resignation of fishermen employed under the governmental employment redressing programme at Walvis Bay last week.
The mission of Tjekero Tweya, the head of the delegation, Gotthard Kasuto, Elma Dienda, and Edson Isaacks was to understand what led to the mass resignation of 532 fishermen in August.
The fishermen resigned from the Camoposatu Investment/Vernier Investment/Cavema Fishing joint venture and Hodago Fishing.
The fishermen resigned hopping for active employment by a local fishing company.
The government has since 2020 been giving the involved companies 30 tonnes of freezer horse mackerel in exchange for employment.
Because there were no vessels, the companies have been paying the fishermen N$4 000 while not actively employed.
Another director in the joint venture, Alex Kirov, said employment creation in the fishing industry is currently non-existent.
“If the total allowable catch does not change, and value addition efforts don’t fluctuate too much, the jobs that are out there will not increase.
“It’s impossible. What we need is new experimental species, and improved value addition for outside products for reprocessing in Namibia,” he said.