Rehana Roussouw
The public protector, Selby Baqwa, has been asked to investigate alleged corruption by senior government officials during a takeover of Paternoster Fisheries.
Paternoster’s plight was highlighted at a parliamentary portfolio committee hearing in June which investigated complaints in the fishing industry.
The committee decided Baqwa should investigate the downfall of the village. “The story of how once- vibrant and thriving villages have been brought to [their] knees and entombed in abject poverty is a depressing tale of greed, corruption, government mismanagement and overfishing,” the committee said in a report.
Delli Walters, whose grandfather started fishing in Paternoster in 1911 and built the Kliprug village for his staff, caused a stir at the hearings when he claimed a former government minister helped deprive his family of their fishing rights.
Walters said his family’s problems began in 1957 when Santam Bank’s general manager advised his father, Dawid Walters, to form a company to pay less tax. He did so, but Santam employees were also issued shares without his knowledge and gained control of Paternoster Fisheries.
In 1960 his father’s crayfish quota was registered in the name of Paternoster Fisheries without his knowledge and his shares were sold.
Walters said his father laid a complaint, but the attorney general refused to prosecute because “important people” were involved in the case.
Over the next few years, Jan Haak, then deputy environment minister, Louis Pienaar, who later became environment minister and Albertus Marais took control of Paternoster Fisheries.
Dawid Walters got a court order making the company’s books available to him, but they were stolen before he saw them. He again laid charges, but was told the attorney general refused to prosecute because of the high-profile people involved.
Walters said the Department of Sea Fisheries discriminated against him after the company was stolen from his family. When his boat ran aground, the department refused to transfer his sardine licence to a replacement boat.
In 1975, his licence to pack crayfish at the Paternoster factory was withdrawn. In 1982 he was the only private boat owner refused a crayfish quota.
Paternoster residents are also attempting to investigate who holds quotas in the name of their community. In the run-up to the 1994 elections, the National Party instituted a system of community quotas which was to extend fishing rights to traditional coloured fishermen.
The system has since been discontinued, but the Paternoster Women’s League discovered that a community quota for five tons of crayfish had been allocated for 30 fishermen in the village. None of the fishermen received a cent from the proceeds of the catch.
“We are sitting here quietly starving to death while someone out there is sitting pretty with our money,” said league member Mabel Bailey.
The women are also attempting to find out whether Pierre Pharo, the last owner of Paternoster Fisheries, still has a quota. They suspect he is using it to catch crayfish somewhere else.