A diamond in the rough

Justicia Shipena

Newly inaugurated Walvis Bay junior mayor Kundja kavari is a pupil at the International School of Walvis Bay.

He was recently sworn in to assist the council with its youth activities.

Kavari is a young, vibrant and purpose-driven, who hails from the small diamond-mining town of Oranjemund.

He started off his primary education at Oranjemund Private School and failed grade 1.

However, this did not discourage him, and in his second year in grade 1 he improved massively and received an 80% diamond certificate for numeracy.

In the middle of grade 2 year he moved with his parents to Walvis Bay and continued his education at Immanuel Ruiters Primary School.

In grade 6 he became head boy at the school.

Kavari joined the International School of Walvis Bay in 2018, and in the same year, he was elected to the learner representative council (LRC) for 2019.

“This year I participated in the Napso arts and culture festival and I got a gold certificate for poetry recital, thanks to Luischen Sirakis discovering that potential in me,” he said.

He also received the principal’s award this year. Kavari is currently doing his International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and will be doing his AS levels next year.

Speaking to The Zone, the strong-minded junior mayor said during his term he would like to focus on the issue of mental health, as this is an essential part of a young individual’s growth as well.

“If we want to have Namibian youth who are community changers, motivators, role models and future successful men and women, we should make sure that they are aware of their mental health and make sure that they are mentally healthy. This is something that we as the junior council will try to focus on and hopefully this will impact our youth in Walvis Bay,” Kavari said.

He stressed it is critical that youth in our country start getting involved in politics and called on the government to open more doors and opportunities for youth to do so.

He said he realised that many youth in Walvis Bay do not know about the junior council and what it does.

He would, therefore, like to expand the awareness of the junior council.

After he completes his high school he plans on enrolling at university and motivating young learners.

“I am also looking forward to being involved in a foundation called the Star Foundation, which is going to focus on mental health and targets instilling hope back in the hearts of teens.”

He added that what stands in the way of young people, when it comes to education and later employment, is the mindset of the individual.

“Yes we can say that our government has not provided enough employment opportunities for youth, but again that’s an opportunity in our country to have more self-employed youth.”

When asked what he would do to tackle the issue of housing, to ensure that his peers will one day be homeowners, he said the issues starts with the government and municipality to try and make sure they put in place a system that will continuously be creating and making plots available for people to either build houses or that allows government to build affordable houses.

He said currently not all Namibians can afford National Housing Enterprise (NHE) houses.

“I think this is an issue I as the junior mayor cannot do much about, but I believe our senior mayor will put something in place that we, the junior council, can then work on.”