Engineers want jobs for locals

Catherine Sasman The Namibian Society of Engineers (NASE) has made an appeal to the Ministry of Works and Transport not to renew or extend Zimbabwean engineers’ five-year contracts, which were entered into under a memorandum of understanding between the two countries in 2012.Earlier this month it was reported that the ministry had given a three-month contracts extension to the 85 expatriates employed there. It stated that it still had to decide whether these contracts would be renewed or not.The secretary-general of NASE, Rachel Kakololo, said it was not clear why the ministry would consider a renewal of these contracts, since there were qualified and professionally registered Namibians who were unemployed and not given opportunities to be considered for the same jobs at the ministry.NASE says this “experimental” and “unproductive” programme had failed Namibian graduates and should be immediately stopped.“What government lacks in technical professions is not manpower. That was 15 years ago, not today. It lacks practical and strategic planning,” the organisation said.It wanted to know what kind of research either the ministry or the Public Service Commission (PSC) have conducted for these bodies to believe that there are not enough Namibian engineers, architects and quantity surveyors to be considered for the ministry’s understudy programme, which is yet to be implemented years after it was conceived.An understudy programme is aimed at preparing interns for registration with the Engineering Council of Namibia (ECN) or the Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors (NCAQS). The minimum duration of an internship is three years.NASE says the ministry’s understudy programme had been running for the last five years and had produced not a single registration, while similar programmes at other state-owned enterprises had produced yearly registrations.In December last year NASE met with Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, works minister Alpheus !Naruseb and cabinet secretary George Simataa to share an updated list of all registered Namibian engineers, architects and quantity surveyors.“NASE does not believe that there are sufficient reasons for your office [works ministry] and the wider government to renew or extend any expatriate’s contract without advertising the positions (even if still on contract) for registered Namibian professionals to be considered first with the exact same special benefits currently accorded to expatriates,” Kakololo said.NASE said the understudy programme did not have to be manned by expatriates, and also pointed out that an unregistered person could not mentor anyone else under the Engineering Professions Act and the Architectural and Quantity Surveying Act.The Confidante newspaper reported in the middle of last year that most of the Zimbabweans could not get registered with the ECN or NCAQS. The handful that did register, were registered as professionals in training.It was also reported that most got paid N$30 000 while Namibians got paid N$15 000 on average.The Namibian government at the time of the signing of the MoU undertook to pay for their air travel (economy class), accommodation and transport needs while here, assistance to obtain relevant documents for them, their spouses and children, and to assist them in getting their children registered at schools.“[Namibia] is spending so much on an unnecessary expedition and reaping completely nothing out of it. Meanwhile, understudy programmes that have been led by Namibian professionals elsewhere, such as SOEs and the private sector, have produced far better and tangible results,” Kakololo said. Better optionNASE is of the opinion that there is no need for 85 professionals in the works ministry, arguing that there is need for only five under a performance-based contract at the ministry’s head office and five at each regional office in the 14 regions.It suggested that all graduates be dispatched to understudy the five registered professionals at head office and in the regions, including at engineering projects and sites that are being run by SOEs countrywide.

Engineers want jobs for locals

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-04

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Engineers want jobs for locals

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-04

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