Luqman Cloete
10 July 2009
Keetmanshoop — KEETMANSHOOP residents took to the streets on Tuesday to demand jobs for Karas Region inhabitants. Brandishing placards, the demonstrators handed a petition to Karas Governor Dawid Boois at the southern town.
Some of the placards read: 'Enough is Enough', 'We are not drunkards and lazy, we want jobs', 'Stop corruption and distribute wealth belonging to all of us equally', 'Our leaders dismally failed us, please live up to the expectations' and 'Until when must we be treated as second class citizens in the land of our birth'.
Claiming that only people from other regions were employed in top management positions in Government departments in the region, the protestors demanded that the situation change.
"We demand that our own should be in management positions and not people from other regions, as is the case now," the petition states.
"The Karas Region is unique in that the majority is migrant workers who repratriate their income to areas of origin rather than invest locally with dire consequences for the region. Is that fair, Sir?" It further reads.
Slamming Government tender boards for overlooking southerners when it came to tender allocations, particularly in the construction industry, the protestors demanded that all tenders of less than N$50 million be given to skilled local contractors and entrepreneurs.
"To make things worse multinationals are competing for small and large projects with locals. It is common knowledge that institutional support they receive from their authorities allows them to tender at lower prices," the petition states.
The protestors also demanded more higher education opportunities, to train locals to become part of the economic mainstream, and more powers for traditional authorities to enhance the development and skills of their people. In addition, they called for the complete overhaul of the resettlement programme to make land accessible to the indigenous people of the region. "The liberation struggle, our forefathers started, was about land," the petition reads.
Receiving the petition, Governor Boois pledged to respond to the protestors' concerns within 30 days.
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