Soldiers Without Hope

LET me first thank The Namibian newspaper for allowing poor members of the community to express their issues at no cost, you are truly a nation building agent! I am writing this letter as a soldier, a victim of the situation and a long serving member of the Namibia Defence Force [NDF] without any criminal records or disciplinary hearing.

However, I am very much disappointed to witness the situation unfolding and it remains unchanged. Namibia is a very peaceful country with peaceful civilians.
It is disappointing to have commanders using the NDF to advance their personal interests and discriminate against poor soldiers who are unknown to them.
Government must treat people equally irrespective of their origins. Why must surnames play a role in allocating resources? Why certain families must benefit at the expenses of the unknown soldiers?
The ministry has channels of solving grievances but these channels do not work for the poor soldiers because documents are pushed under the carpet and poor soldiers become prey to victimisation.
What worries some of us since we joined the force is that we have no hope in career progress. Inexperienced young people are coming from behind us and qualify for everything that we have been requesting just because they are family members of those in administration of power.
Do we just join to be servants of a certain group of people or to defend the interest of our country?
The ministry must come up with new channels of lodging grievances since the current channel is only benefiting certain individuals.

Unknown soldier
By email

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