Residents of Havana settlement have been left frustrated, disappointed and angry at Kunene River construction Company for failing to give them jobs.
Kunene River construction company earlier this year won over a tender to build the road that connects Hakahana and Havana. The road construction is set to begin in August and the company is currently recruiting people.
Many residents feel that they are being overlooked, especially those that stay close to the road and in the area. They feel that they should have been the ones to be looked at first. These residents claim that the few individuals that have been given jobs from the area were given according to tribal preferences. “From our area, only the Damara people have been given jobs yet and not other tribes and they are also not even more than 10” , Matheus Luusa an angry resident expressed.
Another resident added that they are being fed with lies by the recruitment officers of the Kunene River construction. “The official in charge of recruiting has been lying to us, he made us submit our CVs and to write our names down and promised us that we would get called in a short time, but nothing came up until now. We see new people getting recruited everyday in front of our eyes. Most of these people are not even from our area and are mostly from Damara and Kavango tribes. We are tired of being overlooked and we cannot let something like this continue to happen. We deem this as corruption happening right in front of our eyes” .
Mr. Shidule Eliaser, an employee at the company however addressed a crowd of the residents yesterday (19th July), to update them on the way forward with their selection and recruitment processes. He expressed that the company is busy with the selection stage and that in two weeks successful applicants will be called up to go start work. He also added that the lack of equipment supplies to them is the main hindrance to their progress. “We would have started with this work already if we had received our equipment and tools, but hopefully we will receive them by next week or the first week of August and we’ll start with our work” he said.
The construction is set to last for 8 months and the general worker’s wage is set to be N$ 21 per hour.