29 Jun 2017

Plans are underway to commence the construction of fish camps by Lake Ngami Conservation Trust.

Initially, the plan was to start construction beginning of July, but the newly elected trust chairperson, Ms Helmy Bokhutlo expressed disappointment, in an interview, that things would not go as planned due to delay by the council architect, who was expected to advise on bill of quantities.

She explained that they had long waited for the report from the council architect as it would give them the green light to start construction of the camps.

“Our plan has failed and we made efforts to engage the office of the deputy district commissioner, who assured us that he would take up the matter with the council leadership to ensure we are assisted urgently,” she added.

Ms Bokhutlo said the budget had been approved, noting that the project had been funded to the tune of over P1 million.

The project is said to be funded by the Office of the President.

She stated that once the architect’s report is complete, the board would now work on the tender process.

The chairperson noted that their priority was to start with the ablution blocks, then construction of camps.

Ms Bokhutlo further stated that they expected the whole project to be completed at least before end of the year as their intention was to do away with temporary structures and keep fishermen in permanent camps.

She assured fishermen that come March next year, everything would be in order.

On other issues, the trust board is considering the decision to phase out Legotlhwane Camp, which was reported to be expensive to run due to negligible number of subscription-paying fishermen at the camp.

Ms Bokhutlo confirmed that indeed the camp was costly, adding that a decision would be made in the board meeting to close it.

She said they visited the camp and realised that many fishermen had left because of lack of market.

She said about five people were still at the camp while the rest left, adding that most of the fishermen at the camp were poverty eradication beneficiaries.

The chairperson stated that most fishermen relied much on the lucrative market of dry fish and since the dry fish ban export, they were not making any profits, hence their businesses collapsed.

Ms Bokhutlo suspected that fishermen were not doing enough to market fresh fish because they were used to quick cash from readily available market of dry fish.

Meanwhile, after assessing their financial status, the trust moved to restructure their fishing camps in order to make them less costly to run.

The trust decided to retain three camps with a reduced number of fishermen. ENDS