Seaflower Pelagic Processing (Pty) Ltd, Walvis Bay, Namibia

Seaflower sues to stop pelagic quota auction

A PARTLY state-owned fishing company, Seaflower Pelagic Processing, is suing the ministers of fisheries, finance and public enterprises and its minority shareholder, Fishcor, in a bid to prevent the public auctioning of part of Namibia's horse mackerel catch during the rest of the current fishing season.

In an urgent application filed at the Windhoek High Court on Friday due to be heard today, Seaflower Pelagic Processing is asking the court to issue an interdict that would stop the minister of fisheries and marine resources from auctioning a quota of 24 333 tonnes of horse mackerel, forming part of the remainder of the country's total allowable catch for horse mackerel during 2020.

Seaflower, in which the state-owned National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) is a 40% shareholder, says it has an agreement with Fishcor in terms of which the state company would allow Seaflower to utilise a horse mackerel quota of 50 000 tonnes allocated to Fishcor every year for a period of 15 years, running until the end of 2033.

SeaFlower Pelagic Processing plant (Photo: The Namibian)

On the basis of that agreement, Seaflower has set up a fish-processing plant at Walvis Bay, but its factory has not been operating for months this year because Fishcor has not received its envisaged horse mackerel quota of 50 000 tonnes, and as a result has not made that quota available to Seaflower either, the chairman of Seaflower's board of directors, AJ Louw, says in an affidavit and correspondence filed at the court.

For the current fishing season, Seaflower is still owed a quota of 24 333 tonnes of horse mackerel in terms of its agreement with Fishcor, Louw says. If the company does not receive that outstanding portion of the quota Fishcor is supposed to make available to it, more than 650 people employed by Seaflower will be losing their jobs, he warns.

Louw also says the horse mackerel quota of 24 333 tonnes which Seaflower is still supposed to receive this year is included in the horse mackerel quotas of 72 000 tonnes which the government offered for sale through a public auction on Friday last week.

Two fishing vessels - the MFV Nordervon and the MFV Steinsund, both with a carrying capacity of 800 mt of pelagic fish - were added to the company fleet and a third is lined up to harvest horse mackerel in Namibian waters.(Photo: The Namibian)

The Ministry of Finance is due to announce the results of the auction – in which hake quotas amounting to 11 tonnes and monk quotas of 392 tonnes were also offered for sale – to bidders on Thursday.

Louw has informed the court that in terms of an agreement signed by the then minister of fisheries and marine resources, Bernhard Esau, and the then chairperson of Fishcor's board of directors, James Hatuikulipi, in March 2017, the minister undertook to reserve and make a horse mackerel quota of 50 000 tonnes available to Fishcor annually for a period of 15 years.

The quota was meant to be used for the processing plant Seaflower set up at Walvis Bay.

In terms of the agreement between the fisheries minister and Fishcor and a quota usage agreement between Seaflower and Fishcor, Seaflower has a right to a quota of 24 333 tonnes of horse mackerel, which remains outstanding for the 2020 fishing season, made available to it, Louw says.

Horse mackerel processing line at SeaFlower Pelagic Prcoessing plant (Photo: The Namibian)

He further says in his affidavit that although the then fisheries minister allocated a horse mackerel quota of 50 000 tonnes to Fishcor in 2018, the state-owned company did not make that quota available to Seaflower as agreed, but instead sold the quota.

In 2019, Seaflower was able to exploit only about 30 000 tonnes of the horse mackerel quota allocated to Fishcor, Louw says.

Esau, Hatuikulipi and four co-accused were arrested in November last year on charges in connection with alleged corruption in the allocation and use of Namibian fishing quotas. 

In February, Esau, Hatuikulipi, suspended chief executive officer of Fishcor Mike Nghipunya, and three other accused were also charged in a second case in connection with alleged corruption, fraud and money laundering linked to the use of fishing quotas allocated to Fishcor.

Seaflower is citing the ministers of fisheries, finance and public enterprises, and also Fishcor, as respondents in its urgent application.

Lawyers representing the three ministers and Fishcor gave notice on Friday they would be opposing the application.

Author: Werner Menges / The Namibian

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