Fishing industry urged to re-employ fired fishermen by 28 February 2017

As many as 30 000 direct dependents of fishermen, fired last year after a dragged out illegal strike, are suffering the consequences of unemployment now, says DTA leader McHenry Venaani.

Venaani lead several hundred of the fishermen in an unemployment strike in Walvis Bay on Wednesday, after this political party was the only one to come forward and support the fishermen in their quest to win their jobs back. A direct call was made to the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations to re-employ the fired fishermen. The affected fishermen are challenging their dismissal through the Namibian Labour Court and the matter is still pending.
“We are giving the fishing industry until 28 February to comply with this request”, Venaani said under applause. He explained three more unemployment marches are to follow, respectively in Lüderitz, Oshakati and Rundu.
Venaani sharply criticised the current composition of the fishing industry which he says directly benefits the Swapo elite and foreign nationals like the Spanish and Scandinavians. “They are only protecting their own stomachs”, said Venaani and alleges the local branch of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has received a call from high up and been instructed not to provide news coverage to this unemployment march.
The participating fishermen concluded the unemployment march on Wednesday with a petition handed over to senior labour official of the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation’s Walvis Bay office, Mrs. Gertrud Usiku.
The petition will be published in namib times on Tuesday, 13 December 2016.
∙The DTA of Namibia is the official opposition in the National Assembly with five seats (4,80 %) against Swapo’s 77 seats (80,01 %). The fourteen remaining seats of the 96 seat National Assembly is held by eight other opposition parties.
Venaani in the 2014 Presidential Elections received 4,97 % of the vote against Namibia’s Head of State Dr. Hage Geingob (Swapo) who received 86,73 % of the vote.