Residents of Koës village in the ||Kharas region have accused the village council of overlooking locals in employment recruitment, while councillors deny the allegations and say hiring follows established procedures.
The allegations come after interviews were conducted at the Koës Village Council on Wednesday for cashier and human resource officer positions.
A resident, Edith Janser (37) says at least 50% of the shortlisted candidates must be from Koës as this will give them an opportunity to make it to the interviews or written tests.
Janser adds that the council sets high requirements for positions such as a handyman or cashier, making it harder for locals to qualify and leaving them unemployed.
She says the level of income at the village is low.
“I had applied for a cashier position at the council. I was never called for an interview and that’s fine.
But council must review their requirements to accommodate locals and to consider the experience of locals should they not meet the academic requirements,” Janser says.
She says residents apply even when they do not meet all the requirements because they have seen instances at the council and elsewhere where employees receive in-service training or are allowed to study and further their academic qualifications.
Johannes Christians (45) says he applied for the handyman, firefighter and operator posts at the council.
He says although interviews were conducted, none of the Koës residents who applied were reportedly shortlisted.
Christians says he asked the council’s human resources (HR) department what his shortcomings were but he was given general answers which were not satisfactory for him.
“The HR lady told me I should come see her as she is sitting with the proof that I did not meet the requirements.
When I went there she just directed me to the chief executive, who told me that candidates sometimes do not fill in the application form correctly and documents are not certified.
“I was expecting them to speak specifically to my application. I went home unsatisfied with their answer,” Christians says.
Filimon Appolus (38) says he also applied for the JCB operator and handyman positions.
Apollus claims the council has a tendency to overlook local skills and experience in favour of people from Windhoek.
He says villagers need to be given a chance to upskill themselves, while also helping to reduce unemployment and poverty.
“To give you an example, the village council issued a tender for cleaning of the graveyard and erecting fencing.
Koës people are known for their fencing experience.
That tender was given to an outsider who does not even have a bakkie to transport the materials and is using the council’s transport to do that,” Apollus says.
Councillor Niklaas Kooper has denied the allegations, saying the firefighter and handyman positions have been put on hold because the adverts ran only once in local newspapers and need to run twice.
Kooper says no one has been shortlisted for the two positions, as they will be re-advertised.
“For the positions of cashier, there were four local people interviewed on Wednesday and the position for human resources had one local person that was interviewed.
We are waiting for the report from the interview panel to see who were the successful candidates,” Kooper says.
