By:Hertha Ekandjo
Following the recent shortlisting of 16 000 candidates for 200 vacancies at the Namibia Correctional Service (NCS), the Landless People`s Movement (LPM) youth desk is of the opinion that the recruitment process has failed the young unemployed Namibians.
NCS received 33 259 applications.
“It is a sad state of reality. There is definitely a crisis in the country of a high unemployment rate. And obviously, young people are desperate and they are willing to grab whatever they can to provide bread on the table and take care of their families,”reckons Duminga Ndala, LPM Youth League leader.
Ndala accused government of failing young people “terribly”, adding that it is a “very sad reality” to see 16 000 young people shortlisted for just 200 positions.
She said this has created legitimate expectations as every young person shortlisted has a hope that they would land a job with the institution.
“Something needs to be done in terms of reducing the unemployment rate. As LPM we have always said that it is high time that government looks into agriculture and invests in this sector and also industrialise our country so that young people can get employed in those sectors,” she said.
She suggested for an indaba between government and political parties to discuss the high unemployment rate in the country.
Recently, the Khomas Regional Council reported that about 50% of the youth in the region are unemployed which continues to be a challenge.
The Swapo Party Youth League PYL) secretary Ephraim Nekongo says that the government is not there to create jobs but rather to provide opportunities that would help create jobs in the country.
“The government’s role is not to create employment. When you see government departments or ministries recruiting, it must not be perceived that the objective is to create employment. Government is there to render service and I think we need to distinguish between that,” Nekongosaid.
While acknowledging the high unemployment rate in the country, the Swapo politician reiterated the role of government as a service provider, with the role also to create a conducive environment for investors to come in and create jobs for the people.
He said the SPYL has been advocating for the government to make resources available for institutions such as Agri-Bank, the Development Bank of Namibia, and other private banks to create programmes where young graduates are able to create their own companies with the skills they have and employ others.
“At the end of the day, these companies can provide services to the government or private sector and create employment. The government should come up with a way of creating industries. Without industries there is no way we would be able to create employment!”he said.
Nekongo also took a swipe at the education system.”If the system is only producing teachers, then at the end of the day there would be more teachers with fewer teaching positions”.
Labour expert Herbert Jauch says that the government has its requirements and procedures when positions are made available.”When they have like in this case 100 or 200 positions open, they advertise publicly and because we have such a massive youth unemployment in the country, young people are desperate to apply for a job,” he said.
Jauch said that the problem is not the procedure of advertising vacancies but the massive unemployment rate in the country.
