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By: Josef JohannesThe truth is that something deeply disturbing is going on within our government regarding youth matters and we should be talking about it. What is facing the Namibian youth are challenges that will make one wonder if their government even have thoughts for what they are going through.For instance, accessing land in Namibia has been a big problem for a while now. It is affecting college graduates who want to own land in their own country, but the land prices remain high. Apart from those who can afford to rent, other members of the youth stay in low quality housing on the outskirts of their towns, where diseases spread due to unhygienic conditions. In the informal settlements there is lack of clean water, toilets and electricity among other basic necessities. Although there have been rumours that top government officials own the majority of the properties that the youth are renting, the situation to solve the matter is not seemingly improving.Those who have graduated from universities five years ago are still unemployed hustling to get jobs, since every vacancy requires one to have 2, 3, 4 or 5 years of experience in a particular field. This makes the youth to not feel very loved by the Namibian government, spending their days on the streets with their qualifications without a job after voting for a promising government. The youth are being asked for experience that they do not have as they have just graduated and should at least start off as assistants in positions that they qualified for. Where will they get that massive experience if they just graduated? This is one of the reasons why the youth in Namibia do not feel loved. Inequality in Namibia is among the many complaints of the youth when it comes to opportunities; the youth feel that only certain well connected people are enjoying the fruits of an independent Namibia. Jobs and tenders are awarded only to certain people, you find people called for interviews from the farthest corners of the country for a job interview without knowing that the job has already been awarded to someone else. This continues to happen, but the government is not doing anything about it. This contributes excessively to unemployment in Namibia, where the majority will continue to suffer in poverty. They spend most of the time gaining the youth’s trust during election campaigns, but spend little time on improving their lives once the elections are over. They have ripped car wash services, which some youths depend on for survival or starting a business. About 4 500 Namibians' hopes for employment in the police force have been dashed following the announcement of a recruitment freeze until 2019 due to budget cuts. Why did they not cut ministers’ salaries to recruit the youth?The weird thing is, they were forcing to build a 2.4 billion parliament and it was having an approved budget. Now, those in high offices are saying the government is not able to recruit new staff members until 2019. We thought in 2016 that the government had plenty of funds in their coffers when they tried to build an airport and a new parliament. When you are in a top position, you are there to serve people, not to serve yourself. It seems that ministers are running the government just for the sake of money they receive, but not for the greater good of the citizens. There has never been a thing that the government has done for the development of youths’ lives except causing them hardship. The facts are that, the youth shape the future of a nation by replacing the previous generation in key political, social and cultural roles and also have a significant impact on national economic growth with tendencies toward free enterprise, equal rights and humanitarian issues. The government is failing to consider those facts and because of those unrecognised facts in the Namibian government, they might have an effect on regular revolutions in values and ideas as young people reach adulthood and take over from the veterans with new leadership. The government will not achieve its vision 2030 objectives if it doesn’t consider the welfare of the youth regarding economic well-being and access to opportunities. It is important to encourage civic responsibility among the youth so that they feel rooted in purpose.The youth get provided with free knowledge regarding voting, but they pay to get provided with vocational training skills to gain knowledge to improve their living standards with jobs and businesses. But because of money, many have no alternative, but to steal and do illegal things in search of money for survival.*Josef Johannes is a student at the University of Namibia’s Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-13

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-13

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