/Gai-0B Fishing owners clash over company shares
…As minister intervenes
By Rosalia David
FRANS Gariseb of /Gai-OB Fishing CC, a company based in Windhoek, is currently lobbying against the company chairperson Christy //Naobeb to get his spot back on the board as a founding member.
Gariseb this week alleged that //Naobeb has been conspiring with other board members to have him removed permanently after he accidently submitted a company profile to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, which excluded Gariseb’s name as a founding member.
“We were applying for fishing rights at the ministry and I forgot to include my name as a shareholder in the proposal. It is an honest error I made. So, when the ministry approved the submitted proposal, I realized that my name is not on it and requested to submit a changed one,” he explained.
He added that the ministry suggested that the company submit a comprehensive motivation for the changes in the shareholding structure approved by his fellow company members as his name appears in all documents including the ones submitted at the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development as a shareholder who then refused to do so.
In a letter dated 30 September 2019, The Ministry OF Fisheries and Marine Resources wrote to //Naobeb requesting for outstanding documents such as the executorship letters, trust certificate and a resolution to change the shareholding structure signed by all shareholders. “All of these members are people that have been brought on board by me and my wife, because we started the company. They have even removed me from their WhatsApp groups and stopped me from attending meetings. I have gone as far as getting a lawyer but they still refuse. The letter stated that all members must sign but they are refusing, its conspiracy” he stressed. Contacted for comment on the matter, //Naobeb shot down Gariseb’s claims, questioning how he could forget to include his own name in a proposal that he submitted himself although //Naobeb wrote several letters to the ministry admitting that Gariseb is indeed the founding director.
“Please tell me how it’s possible to forget to include [his] own name in a proposal that he has submitted himself? How is that possible? We drew it up together and me and another member left him with his wife and still went to go collect the letter of acceptance. I don’t even know how many people he has plans to go to. He must prove how he made that error,” //Naobeb explained.According to member Benjamin Dax, Gariseb is not telling the truth and he could not agree more with the chairperson, saying Gariseb has deceptively been benefitting from the company by using a shareholding structure document which is not in the original documents approved by the ministry.
“I totally agree with //Naobeb and I think Gariseb needs to stop accusing people, he must explain how he forgot. He has been benefiting for almost seven years as a shareholder, now he is threatening us with lawyers,” Dax noted.
He further urged Gariseb to consult the board members and sort out the issue internally rather than run to the press and lawyers.
Although Gariseb mentioned that he would never take someone else’s shares for himself, Dax advised him to rather come up with a proposal on where exactly his shares are supposed to come from .“We are family members in this thing, why can he not come to us and explain how exactly how he made the error, accompanied by proof and also tell us where the shares are going to come from? As far as I am concerned there are no shares to give him. If he is thinking that we will remove a 77-year-old pensioner to [accommodate] him, it won’t be right.”