Country’s resources for everyone – Klazen
Klazen said there is a group of people in Walvis Bay who believe that their forefathers were the pioneers who started the fishing at the town after they came from South Africa, who have now retired but have not benefitted from the country’s resources. He was speaking during the induction workshop of new hake fishing right holders at Walvis Bay on Thursday.
WALVIS BAY, 22 SEP (NAMPA) – The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Derek Klazen, has discouraged those who think they are more deserving of the fishing rights than others to terminate this belief.
Klazen said there is a group of people in Walvis Bay who believe that their forefathers were the pioneers who started the fishing at the town after they came from South Africa, who have now retired but have not benefitted from the country’s resources.
He was speaking during the induction workshop of new hake fishing right holders at Walvis Bay on Thursday.
“Those resources are national resources and are not for Walvis Bay residents alone. Yes, they can be more qualified than others, but they still have to apply and follow the procedures.
And if you apply, just like it was the case with the new right holders, you need to include all regions in your application, in order to be considered,” the minister stressed.
He added that there should never been a ranking to determine who benefited, who did not and who got the lowest fishing rights in the first place.
“There should never have been a ranking, because the new right holders knew when you were applying that you were supposed to include everybody. So somebody who is sitting here with rights knows that although they are from one region, he or she has partners from other regions in these rights,” Klazen noted.
The minister also emphasised the importance of respecting the joint-ventures, noting that this request always tends to be a deal-breaker to many right holders, since they are required to work together with people they did not know before who have different business ideas.
“Working together as a group of right-holders should not necessarily spell trouble but should afford you leverage when negotiating with technical operators, allow you to learn from other right-holders and gaining experiences on how to serve as director of companies, amongst others, or simply learning another local language,” he added.
(NAMPA)
IB/HP/EK