Gov�t slammed over Ngami fish export ban
Boniface Keakabetse | Friday April 7, 2017 17:02
In the statutory instrument No. 17 of 2017, published on March 10, 2017, government through the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism banned the export of dried fish.
The notice states that: ‘no person shall export or cause to be exported any dried fish produced from fish originating in Botswana’. The prohibition is for a period of 12 months from date of publication in the Government Gazette.
Since the ban took effect, Lake Ngami Community Trust has revealed that the export ban has thrown the entire fishing industry in Ngamiland into chaos. In a night time meeting held at Maun Administrative offices on Tuesday, the Trust requested the minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama to suspend the ban of dry fish exports to neighbouring countries.
Lake Ngami Trust stated through its manager, Galefele Maokeng that: “As a key stakeholder in the management of fisheries resources and perhaps the largest exporter of dried fish in the country we were quite disappointed that we were not consulted on the decision”.
The trust explained that: “Several fishermen have vacated fishing camps and our fish market in Sehitwa has been shutdown”.
Maokeng further said if the ban goes for a couple of more months, hundreds of fishers will be out of work adding that this will in turn affect the operations of the trust as it relies on rentals paid by the fishers.
Maokeng explained that since the fishing season commenced at the beginning of March, P160,000 has been generated by local communities out of sale of dried fish to the external markets.
“A third of these fishers are beneficiaries of government poverty eradication scheme.
The ban is taking all this from the people,” he said. Maokeng added that due to an absence of consultation, some Zambian traders are stranded in Botswana as they had bought fish before the ban took effect.
“Foreign buyers and our people have got large fish stockpiles waiting to be exported. These fish stocks were raised with a legitimate expectation to export, under a legal arrangement licensed and guaranteed by the minister and the trust.”
In a response, Khama explained that the decision was taken to arrest overfishing, which could be ongoing at Lake Ngami.
He said the Ministry is alarmed over the size of dried fish leaving Botswana destined for Kasumbalesa in Zambia. He stated that they took the decision to ban dried fish export as they realised that no Batswana are benefitting from it adding that they are also planning to undertake a survey of fish stocks on the lake to find out if fishing is being undertaken sustainably.
Khama said banning of exports was the only feasible intervention alluding that their earlier attempt to institute a tax on the exported fish did not materialise due to the free trade arrangement in the SADC area.
He gave the trust two weeks to propose a solution on how they will ensure that Batswana benefit from dry fish trade before his ministry could reopen the trade.