14 May 2017

 About six people from zones three and seven have been disqualified for commercial fishing in the Okavango delta.
This was revealed in a report which was presented to members of the Commercial Fishing License Committee during an evaluation meeting of the recent raffle exercise where over 3 000 people tried their luck to acquire licenses to fish in the delta but only 356 qualified.
Presenting the report, the committee secretary, Mr Choto Choto explained that as per the raffle guidelines for commercial fishing, all those who won in the raffle competition were subjected to screening before they could be issued with licenses.

The screening process was based on the fish protection regulations of 2008 that require applicants to be over 18 years, be a citizen and to have not been convicted of both fish and wildlife offences.
Mr Choto revealed that out of the six who were disqualified, three were due to offences of fish protection regulations while the other three were beneficiaries of poverty eradication programmes on commercial fishing.
In addition, he said the affected people were notified and that six people from the reserve list were taken to replace them.
However, the committee has raised concern about winners who drag their feet to collect their licenses, as it was reported that only 132 licenses had been issued despite efforts made by the fishery unit to remind winners.
In the report, it was stated that all winners were notified through telephone three days after the raffle, and that the list was put up in all public places.

The raffle was held on April 10 and the issuance of licenses started on April 19 this year and all those who won were given two months to have obtained their licenses as the issuance of licenses would expire on June 19.
However, Mr Choto said those who have not yet obtained their licenses without convincing reasons would be automatically disqualified and the next in the reserve list given an opportunity.
In zone 3 only 80 licenses out of 176 have been issued, zone five all applicants acquired their licenses while zone 6 two out of five collected their licenses and zone 7 only 47 out of 170 were issued with licenses. ENDS