‘Withdraw your allegations or show proof’

Lüderitz mayor and chairperson of the Lüderitz Crayfish Festival board Benjamin McKay has called on the Lüderitz Entire Community Association (Leca) and its acting secretary Ronnie Solomons to withdraw allegations made against the festival board, which he asserts are defamatory and lack proof.

In a report published in the Windhoek Observer online newspaper headlined ‘Lüderitz community alleges fishing quota fraud’, Solomons, in a letter addressed to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Namibia’s ombudsman, said current and former members of the town council have been redirecting money to a trust fund, which was allegedly later divided among them for personal use.

According to Solomons, the theft of the funds has been ongoing since at least 2014, when the trust fund was set up by former mayor of the harbour town Suzan Ndjaleka.

Other members of the trust fund, according to Solomons, are Aune Gebhardt, Brigitte Fredricks, Richard Kennedy, Jacobus Bester, Samuehl Fluksman, Victoria Wilson and Immanuel Nakomba.

“The office of the mayor observed with concern a lot of irregularities in the publications made by Solomons and, therefore, would like to refrain [sic]the mayor’s office and the entire Lüderitz Town Council from all these personal accusations made by Solomons, until Solomons and his co-members listed in the letter to the ombudsmans’ office come to the forefront with comprehensive or valid proof of these allegations,” said McKay.

Gebhardt – previous town council CEO – said the “fish quota” was a crayfish quota awarded for the hosting of the crayfish festival in an effort to market Lüderitz as a tourism destination, create economic opportunities for locals and provide access for Namibians to crayfish-a usually costly delicacy-at a more affordable price.

“This fishing quota was not given to the Lüderitz Town Council to develop the town by building houses, roads and toilets. It was a quota for [the] crayfish [festival] itself initially. But after the success of the crayfish festival, there was a need to create a vehicle for sustainability in hosting this event. So the quota was not given to the Lüderitz Town Council to build houses, streets and toilets. But to enable the sustainable hosting of this event,” said Gebhardt.

Board member Kennedy said a trust was created to manage the crayfish quota and funds accrued after its sale to fishing companies to cater for the expenses of the festival, such as security guards, tents and cleaners that submit quotations for services to be rendered.

Kennedy said these requests for services are handled by a separate management committee established annually through a call to community members, and companies at the town who provide recommendations to the board about services that require payment.

This will be the 16th crayfish festival to be hosted at the town from 27 April to 1 May. The Lüderitz Town Council issued a call for proposals in February to invite persons interested to serve on this committee.

“As we are speaking, for this year’s event we have approved about N$2,3 million to be spent on paying for services. Thereafter, we hosted a fundraising gala dinner. At that event we provided a report of how the previous year’s funds were spent.

“Every year that we hosted the festival our books are audited, except the two years of Covid-19 when there was no festival. Last year’s events books are now with the auditors and once completed will be sent to the executive director at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources,” said Kennedy.

!Nami?Nûs constituency councillor and former town mayor Ndjaleka described the allegations as a case of a lack of information.

“I think what could have led to this is the lack of information and the need to open these books to the public or community to satisfy themselves with the matter at hand,” said Ndjaleka.

In the letter, Leca requested that the ACC and ombudsman to assist the community of Lüderitz by urgently investigating the matter.

“We are 100% sure that the money generated from harvesting the allocated quota has since its inception never benefited the town council or the community of Lüderitz,” said Solomons.