Lake Ngami fishing ban leaves poor communities in crisis after government ignored expert advice opposing the move, write Patriot reporter SOLOMON TJINYEKA in partnership with INK Centre for Investigative Journalism It smells nasty, but Maletelo Molathiwa, a resident of Sehithwa village on the edge of Lake Ngami in northwestern Botswana, depends on it. In fact, until recently it was the linchpin of the local economy. The source of the stench is a pile of dried salted fish in a discarded metal basin in her backyard that Molathiwa can no longer sell. The government has imposed a year-long prohibition on fishing in the lake. This has had a crippling effect on Sehithwa – and one expert says it is entirely unnecessary. A single mother of six, 50-year-old Molathiwa used to brave cold winter nights camping next to the lake after she obtained a permit from fisheries department last year. She would add salt to her catch, mostly catfish, and sun-dry it before selling the fish for P25 each at the local market to traders bound for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia. When business was good, Sehithwa and other nearby villages exported 13 000 tonnes of dried fish a…