Vet foreign engineers

The Namibian Society of Engineers has called on the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration to carry out due-diligence in the issuance of work permits to expatriate engineers.In an appeal letter addressed to permanent secretary for home affairs Patrick Nandago, the society's secretary-general Rachel Kakololo called for proper vetting when work permits are issued to foreign nationals in the fields of science, mathematics and engineering.A large number of local engineers are unemployed according to Kakololo, due to retrenchments, lack of adequate training opportunities and the lack of proactive engagement by the Engineering Council of Namibia. “Namibian engineers are currently unemployed or misemployed due to retrenchments [because] companies have not been receiving project appointments in a long time, because of inadequate supporting programmes within the government system and a lack of proactive engagement by the Engineering Council of Namibia,” Kakololo said.Pleading the home affairs ministry to favour local engineers, she said: “The era of 'we don't have engineers' is long over. The ministry of home affairs must ensure with absolute certainty that such engineering work for which an expatriate is being hired can truly not be carried out by our own engineers here in Namibia.”The society also called on government to cap contracts given out to expatriate engineers to five years. “Under no circumstances should any contract for engineering positions be more than five years or extended without a clear reason why the intern can still not take over from the expatriate,” Kakololo further suggested.According to her, the society has compiled a database of engineers and graduate engineers and said that it was prepared to provide the list to the home affairs ministry for the cross-checking of local engineers. “We are prepared to provide your office with the information you need to cross-check the availability of local engineers before issuing any work permits to non-Namibians for any positions in the fields of engineering, science and mathematics.”Kakololo also called on the ministry of labour to conduct investigations at various state projects to establish whether locals were favoured over foreign engineers. “Launch an investigation at various state projects and find out how many Namibians engineers are employed,” she said. “Understand if the jobs given to non-Namibians can be performed by our own engineers,” she said.The society was, according to her, also willing to work more closely with the Engineering Council of Namibia and admitted that the relationship was not always at its best.Commenting on the relationship, she said: “We would like to work together with them. We have not enjoyed a good relationship with them in the past and hope the relationship improves going forward.” OGONE TLHAGE

Vet foreign engineers

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Namibian Sun 2026-04-28

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Vet foreign engineers

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Namibian Sun 2026-04-28

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