A portion of the R294 million restitution Hout Bay Fishing Industries has been ordered to pay to South Africa must go to former employees, says Nelson Qwashu, who worked for the company for 26 years.
“We are the victims of Hout Bay Fishing,” Qwashu, 55, a father of two who lives in Khayelitsha, said yesterday.
Hout Bay Fishing Industries was shut down and scores of employees retrenched 12 years ago when it emerged the company had been exporting large amounts of West Coast rock lobster illegally from South Africa to the US for more than a decade.
It has also emerged in court papers how Hout Bay Fishing used black and coloured employees to get fishing rights, then pocketed the proceeds of selling lobster without paying workers.
Arnold Bengis, 77, the company’s managing director, his son David, 43, and Jeffrey Noll, 62, were on Friday ordered by the US to pay nearly R294m restitution to South Africa – the largest known order of its kind. The case took more than 10 years to finalise.
Qwashu said he and a number of his then colleagues had assisted the now-defunct Scorpions in probing Bengis. “I think the government must help us because we helped the Scorpions. “We’ve been left with nothing,” he said.
Qwashu said he had been a crane driver and foreman for Hout Bay Fishing. It was his first and only job.
“When Hout Bay Fishing shut down, my life changed completely.
“I looked for another job, but couldn’t get it because of my age. I didn’t work again. I’m a pensioner now. My wife’s a pensioner. One of my daughters works. She looks after us,” Qwashu said.
ccording to a 2004 affidavit, Qwashu had been the sole director of Amandla Abasebenzi Fishing, one of three companies formed by Hout Bay Fishing to “create a cloak of empowerment” so workers could qualify for commercial fishing rights.
Trusts had been formed with the three companies, and beneficiaries were Hout Bay Fishing employees. The affidavit said authorities were led to believe the companies were genuinely empowerment-driven.
It said aside from certain direct payments to beneficiaries, Hout Bay Fishing paid Amandla only R287 100.
When illegal activities shut down Hout Bay Fishing, Qwashu and his colleagues were retrenched. “The workers were paid the equivalent of one week of wages for every year of employment with Hout Bay,” the affidavit said.
Amandla had therefore claimed R2.7m from Hout Bay Fishing. To secure its claim, Amandla had the company’s remaining asset, the vessel Arctic Fox, arrested.
But as the arresting party, Amandla had to pay the costs of preserving the vessel – and a berthing spot cost R1 000 a day.
In the end, Amandla had to pay R723 900 for this.
In December 2003, its claim was settled out of court.
The affidavit said it was decided Arctic Fox could be sold and the proceeds could go to the three “empowerment” companies, Amandla being one of these. The companies struggled to sell the vessel, which was valued at R6m. A buyer was eventually found who paid R1.25m for the vessel – a fraction of what it was worth.
Various expenses had then been paid for with the proceeds of the sale.
The affidavit said: “At the end of the day, Amandla (and the other two “empowerment” companies) received nothing from the protracted, and expensive litigation battle against Hout Bay.” - The Cape Times