Kalkfeld residents get jobs in 'lucky draw'

The recruitment of general workers for a NamWater project at Kalkfeld, which residents claimed they were being excluded from, was on Wednesday finalised through the drawing of numbers.Otjiwarongo Constituency Councillor Julius Neumbo on Tuesday halted the recruitment exercise citing suspicious dealings as residents of the settlement claimed that people from other regions were being hired for jobs locals could do.NamWater on 1 March posted notices around Kalkfeld announcing vacancies for 20 general workers, three machine operators, two carpenters, two bricklayers and a clerk.They would amongst others dig trenches and lay pipes.The project intends to channel drinking water from Rodenhof government resettlement farm to Kalkfeld over a distance of 15 kilometres.Neumbo said he received reports from residents alleging that over 20 applicants related to officials at NamWater had travelled from the Khomas, Erongo and Oshana regions for these jobs.The jobs require Grade 10 and for applicants to be in good health.Neumbo said applicants from other regions were not allowed to come and push wheelbarrows and dig and conceal trenches on this project, as there are many unemployed youth at the settlement who also want the jobs.He then called on NamWater to cancel the exercise on Tuesday and start afresh, involving officials from the Kalkfeld settlement office.He also said voter's cards and police declarations must be used as proof that applicants are residents of Kalkfeld.A senior officer administrator at the settlement, Anna Marrie Kawatomas on Thursday told Nampa she witnessed the recruitment process from start to end on Wednesday.“It was fair and transparent,” she said.She said 189 applications were received from Kalkfeld residents.Each application and a piece of paper were then marked from numbers one to 189.The pieces of paper were placed into a box and applicants drew 28 numbers from the box.The numbers were correlated with the applications and the 28 jobs allocated accordingly, said Kawatomas.Some of the residents this news agency spoke to said they were satisfied with the outcome of the exercise.One of the residents, Kennedy Urib, said the process was necessary in order to be fair, adding it was conducted in the presence of the applicants.He said the settlement office had no choice but to apply it as there were so many applications.NAMPA

Kalkfeld residents get jobs in 'lucky draw'

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

Please login to leave a comment

Kalkfeld residents get jobs in 'lucky draw'

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-09-16

Please login to leave a comment

Login