24/01/2024
No wonder they call all scaly deals and corruption a fishy business . . . It STINKS - a rotten, permeating smell as bad as a stinky fish meal plant.
The ongoing investigation and court hearings in Namibia regarding the biggest scandal of state capture, bribery and money laundering in the country's fishing industry, is as fishy and rotten-smelling as the crimes themselves.
Namibian state witness, adv. Marén de Klerk, who has been hiding in SA since 2020 is the only witness who can testify to the direct and prominent involvement of various South Africans in this international scandal regarding fishing rights and quotas in Namibia. Many of these SA individuals' names were also prominently mentioned in the Wikileaks files that were exposed by Al Jazeera in November 2019 after the Icelandic whistleblower, Johannes Stefansson, spilt the beans.
Before De Klerk fled to SA in 2020 he stated in a lengthy affidavit that he was merely following "orders from above" and instructions from his co-directors AJ Louw and Johannes Breedt and that he had no idea what the bigger plans/picture behind the payments were.
Coincidentally, the same Louw, Breed and De Klerk were directors of African Selective Trust and Seaflower Pelagic in Namibia . . . who in early 2019 also applied to build a R380 million pelagic fish meal and oil manufacturing and processing plant in Mossel Bay harbour - the smallest working harbour in SA.
Afro Fishing in Mossel Bay used to be a small family-owned sardine cannery, but when the sardines disappeared and pelagic fish had to be imported from Morocco, the family business faltered and owner Dewald Lourens wanted out.
The Namibian trio - chartered accountant Johannes Breed, well-known economist and businessman AJ Louw and De Klerk stepped in for the take-over and Breed became the "mysterious" new director of Afro Fishing, whose name the new manager Deon van Zyl did not want to reveal.
Their application to add a multi-million rand fish meal processing plant to the small existing cannery was met with vehement resistance from locals due to the enormous impact on Mossel Bay's pristine coastline, infrastructure, marine life and tourism.
When Mosselbayontheline discovered that all three - AJ Louw, Johannes Breed and Marén de Klerk - were directly implicated in the Namibian investigation in numerous overseas media articles, we requested that Afro Fishing's public participation process in Mossel Bay be postponed until the investigation was concluded.
Also, when we mentioned the link between Afro Fishing's new director (Breed) and funder (Louw) and the investigation, Mosselbayontheline was immediately verbally threatened, bombarded with emails and messages and sued to appear in the Cape High Court in an attempt to bully, scare and muzzle us. Total overkill to intimidate a lone investigative journalist? 😉
Mosselbayontheline won the court case with cost and Afro Fishing kept a low profile while the investigation in Namibia dragged on . . . and Marén de Klerk remained in SA because he feared the Namibian president and authorities who were implicated in his testimony. His fears are not unfounded as whistleblower Johannes Stefansson still suffers serious health issues for which he receives ongoing medical treatment after he was allegedly poisoned in Cape Town during one of the meetings held here.
Not ONE of the SA mainstream media outlets ever reported on the scandal or the involvement of several prominent South Africans in the dealings and wheelings that were exposed in the Wikileaks files. Neither did any SA mainstream (corporate) media outlet ever mention a word about the alleged involvement of Afro Fishing's new owners in the scandal . . .
Only the investigative monthly magazine Noseweek joined forces with Mosselbayontheline to help expose SA's involvement in this international scandal that rocked the fishing industry.
Now that a provisional date for Marén de Klerk's extradition hearing has finally been set to start on 23 February 2024, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has signed a ten-year lease agreement with Afro Fishing for the construction and operation of the proposed and heavily contested fish meal processing plant in Mossel Bay harbour . . .
And STILL not a WORD in ANY SA captured corporate media that are all bound to follow their WEF paymasters' scripts and narratives like ALL international corporate media that has been centralized and bought by a few WEF partners such as Blackrock/Vanguard since 1999 . . . Crime pays and when the world's "media" is muzzled and compromised, the worst crimes go undetected . . . as the world clearly saw and experienced since 2019 . . .
Here is some background to this ongoing saga in the lucrative international fishing industry while the main question is whether Marén de Klerk will live to finally testify when there is so much at stake . . . ?
https://mosselbayontheline.co.za/images/pdf/Affidavit_Maren_de_Klerk_17.04.2020.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/mosselbayontheline/posts/pfbid0jwPqfuAudUdbyn9E8a14jxU7z9reu7FmFKBaEvxji59veiFeHwrz1QWXxeFwvhEal
https://www.facebook.com/mosselbayontheline/posts/pfbid031rSJEPenwGW5dWB1AavdCRPWACjsTcCjUozNprCaNW8jMTGeRk1ZZxVk5SgZB6DXl
https://www.weskusontheline.co.za/.../journalist.../
https://mosselbayontheline.co.za/index.php/mossel-bay-fishmeal-company-put-in-its-place-by-fearless-local-journalist
https://mosselbayontheline.co.za/index.php/big-fish-behind-fishmeal-plans-in-mossel-bay-finally-exposed-in-fishrot-scandal?fbclid=IwAR11Qg4JFnIU8TBjGjMQng_9eHCLzxWIktRSoJX844dOHLMeALG41QKSPBo
https://www.mosselbayadvertiser.com/News/Article/General/tnpa-afro-fishing-sign-lease-for-fish-meal-plant-202401150853
https://informante.web.na/?p=353750
THE ongoing extradition case of Fishrot "paymaster" and lawyer Maren de Klerk is expected to continue on the 23rd of February 2024 after a...
