About 70 frustrated children of the liberation struggle marched to the parliament building yesterday but were blocked. The group says they are running out of patience and time and wants government to deliver on the promises of fishing quotas and jobs.
The group demanded to see Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila as they say her office had promised to give them an audience on 5 November 2022. This was after the group had handed over a petition on 17 October.
The group, which is said to have marched illegally without notifying the police, included breastfeeding mothers and fathers carrying crying toddlers. Singing struggle songs, the frustrated “struggle kids” were ultimately stopped by the police at the parliament gates where they came to an agreement to allow two representatives to seek an audience with the prime minister.
The two, Johannes Kamati and Ndamonoghenda Julius returned disappointed, saying they were once again informed the prime minister was out of office. The acting executive director in the Office of the Prime Minister, Erastus Amutenya, who received them, gave them a note reading, “once she is back, this office will inform you of the possible date of appointment to come and see her.”
“We are here to ask the prime minister about that court order that has been telling them that the ombudsman said that we should not be recruited as ‘special’,” said a dejected Julius.
A decision by Cabinet to set aside certain jobs within the public service and employ children of the liberation struggle without them going through the recruitment process, as required by law, was declared unlawful by the High Court in March 2021.
Then ombudsman John Walters said children of the liberation struggle do not fit the criteria of affirmative action which may be applied to racially disadvantaged persons, women and persons with disabilities and nor do they meet the conditions set out in the Veterans Act.
“The fact that the reserved jobs within the public service are not subject to advertisement and are therefore specially set-aside only for the children of the liberation struggle – the result of the decision is that other qualifying Namibian citizens are denied the opportunity to compete for those vacant posts,” said Walters.
According to Walters, the office of the ombudsman investigated after it received numerous complaints from previously disadvantaged Namibian citizens. The findings of that investigation, according to Walters, indicated that all Namibian qualifying persons who seek employment in entry-level positions within the public service and are not children of the liberation struggle would not be given an opportunity to compete for those positions.
The demonstrators’ petition further states their plight has been ignored since 2008. The group feels neglected and abandoned, as they have been camping at two different sites with no hope for a future. They ask that government keeps their promises of giving them jobs, giving them land, allocating fishing quotas to the group and amending the Veterans Act for them to benefit from projects and the veterans fund.
“We demand the government find the solution as soon as possible because time is against us and we are running out of age,” reads the petition.