The Walvis Bay Rural Constituency Councillor believes corruption in the fishing industry will continue if the Fisheries and Marine Resources Act is not amended.

Tegako Donatus is adamant that the current fisheries law gave birth to the biggest corruption scandal in the country.

Donatus made the remarks at the launch of a study on the severe human impact of the fishrot scandal at Walvis Bay.

According to him, Namibians become too emotional when dealing with the scandal and have failed to address the root causes of corruption in the industry.

The Personal Assistant to the Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister defended the current Act, which he says was amended when fishing company Namsov legally challenged the then minister.

Leevy Lee Abrahams noted that the former minister Bernhard Esau allocated quotas to non-right holders, leading the judges to rule that he had no powers to do that.

What followed then, he says, was the amendment to Section 3 of the Marine Resources Act to give powers to the minister to allocate quotas, but with the Cabinet's approval.

Former Ministers Esau and Sacky Shanghala, as well as businessman James Hatuikulipi, are among the accused in the fishrot case. 

The accused allegedly diverted fishing quotas to the Icelandic fishing company Samerji in exchange for bribes.