By: Justicia Shipena
Parliamentarian, Maximilliant Katjimune, has said that the contracts of some interns at the City of Windhoek were terminated yesterday soon after he raised the matter of their exploitation in the national assembly.
The young lawmaker posted questions to labour, industrial relations and employment creation minister Utoni Nujoma on the CoW’s labour exploitation.
At that time, Katjimune stressed that the city’s municipality has a bulk of interns who have been working there for years with no offer of permanent employment.
He said that they were performing the duties of full-time employees who have made their duty stations part-time while they attend to their own private interests and businesses.
“I just received a call from one of the labour consultants saying the contracts were terminated yesterday, and the management did not give a reason. They terminated it after my questions on the matter,” he said.
Namibian labour laws posit that an employee is presumed to be employed indefinitely unless the employer can establish a justification for employment on a fixed term.
This is stated in Section 128C (1) of the Labour Act 27 of 2007.
“It seems like they are afraid that their illegalities will be uncovered; that is why they maybe terminated,” said Katjimune.
He claimed that these interns are being offered contracts of up to six months which are continuously renewed because the city does not, allegedly, want to provide them with permanent employment.
“They don’t even get any leave days because the labour law states that one should get a certain number of leave days per year. They don’t get it because their contract is for six months, according to the City of Windhoek.”
Katjimune added that the city could not be training interns for more than six months.
“That does not become reasonably justifiable as to why you are not hiring that person. It becomes clear that you are just putting a continuous six-month contract because you don’t want to make them permanent because of financial implications. The council is aware of this issue, and some of these issues were raised with the council,” he said.
The City of Windhoek employs more than 450 interns out of a staff complement of over 2 700.
These interns, according to Katjimune, receive measly allowances ranging from N$3 500 to N$3 700.
David (not his real name), who has been employed at CoW as an intern for four years, says they are never given a reason as to why their contracts are extended, and they don’t get full benefits although they are treated like permanent employees.
“I have been working for four years, but when it comes to the contracts that just tell us that it is extended. We are now treated as the main employees of the City of Windhoek,” he said.
He told The Villager that the remuneration remained the same until recently, when the situation changed for them.
“They increased by a mere N$500. We don’t have leave days.”
David expressed that the City of Windhoek does not allow them to apply for internal jobs, adding that there is no reason for this.
Katjimune had given Nujoma until 7 July to respond to the alleged labour exploitation at the city.
When The Villager reached out to the City of Windhoek, the city’s spokesperson, Harold Akwenye, said they would respond via the minister in parliament.
“We will be responding to those allegations with the minister to address them in parliament, and you can pick it up from there,” said Akwenye.
Meanwhile, the former City of Windhoek councillor Ignatius Semba says when he was at the council, the issue regarding interns taking up responsibilities were addressed.
“It was a hustle because when you are hired, you are a professional to deliver services. When you drop all this to an intern, it changes the ball game,” he said.
Semba emphasised that they were people in the city who had businesses while employed by the municipality.
“You have these people leave and run their business while you expect them to be in offices. They would use going to a ‘meeting’ as an excuse. We deployed some of the managers to different departments. One of the interventions we did was to allow for internal vacancies to be taken up by those people,” he said.
