‘Shady’ Shenanigans In Kunene

ALLOW me space in your esteemed paper to share a few thoughts with the Namibian public about shady procedures in the Kunene Region.

Firstly, I would like to comment on the “politically hand-picked” election officials currently working in the Kunene Region. Many of the people in the Kunene Region had submitted their applications to be picked as election officers, some of them experienced people who had already served in elections in previous years.However, the procedures followed to pick officials were dubious in many respects; First of all, how were the people who were picked informed that they had been selected for the job? We had known in previous years, that these candidates were informed by the names being publicly made known, whether as lists at various offices, or through the radio etc, but the current crop we only saw when they had already started working.Amazingly, the majority of these people are from the current ruling party in the Kunene, which is the UDF political party.Also, how could people who had vast experience as election officials be left out of this group, as their experience would have been vital to the group? Another question is, why was this process done through the Constituency councillor, or does this method apply to all the constituencies in Namibia? Why were the people who did not make the cut not informed, as is usually done with these things? My second query is with regard to another “employment tactic”, this time about hostel workers in the Kunene.Many posts were advertised in the Kunene Education Directorate, amounting to over 60, with a huge number of candidates applying.However, we have recently learned that these applications were “frozen”, due to irregularities in the recruitment process.It is speculated that although over 800 applications were made, only about 100 applications were ready to be sent to the various school boards to choose their candidates.What happened to the rest of the applications? Who decided whose application should be taken out and why? My third concern is with regard to the small settlement of Fransfontein, recently declared as a settlement (when it should already have reached the status of Village Council).Recently, a concerned group of young people organised themselves to query one of the conservancies in the area, which is the //Hûab-Conservancy, due to irregularities they had witnessed there.These people were and are concerned about the fact that the conservancy does not benefit the people of the conservancy, and that only certain “elites” share the cake.Unfortunately, plans have already been put in motion by people in higher authorities in the Conservancy, including traditional councillors, who are only supposed to be advisors in such organisations, to thwart the plans of these young people, by way that the conservancy vehicle is now going to these areas, (with these traditional councillors on board) to campaign and lobby support so as to derail the plans of these young people.Also with regard to Fransfontein, we want to know from the Ministry of RLGHRD, or whichever Ministry’s responsibility it is, why traditional councillors of the local traditional authority, are still receiving their salaries/ allowances, because we do not see any work that they are doing here for the past three years? They are not holding meetings to inform the public about their plans, they are not implementing any developmental plans to benefit the people of the local population, thus they do not serve the local population, so in whose names they are receiving these salaries/ allowances! Even among themselves, they have disputes, and until now, we do not know who the actual “headmen/women” are.We thank you very much in advance for publishing our letter, but this is only a prelude to what is still coming, because next time, we will broadly elaborate about these problems we face here, thus we are requesting the intervention of the ACC in the affairs of the Kunene.Kunene Anti-Corruption Group Via e-mail Note: Name and address provided – EdMany of the people in the Kunene Region had submitted their applications to be picked as election officers, some of them experienced people who had already served in elections in previous years.However, the procedures followed to pick officials were dubious in many respects; First of all, how were the people who were picked informed that they had been selected for the job? We had known in previous years, that these candidates were informed by the names being publicly made known, whether as lists at various offices, or through the radio etc, but the current crop we only saw when they had already started working.Amazingly, the majority of these people are from the current ruling party in the Kunene, which is the UDF political party.Also, how could people who had vast experience as election officials be left out of this group, as their experience would have been vital to the group? Another question is, why was this process done through the Constituency councillor, or does this method apply to all the constituencies in Namibia? Why were the people who did not make the cut not informed, as is usually done with these things? My second query is with regard to another “employment tactic”, this time about hostel workers in the Kunene.Many posts were advertised in the Kunene Education Directorate, amounting to over 60, with a huge number of candidates applying.However, we have recently learned that these applications were “frozen”, due to irregularities in the recruitment process.It is speculated that although over 800 applications were made, only about 100 applications were ready to be sent to the various school boards to choose their candidates.What happened to the rest of the applications? Who decided whose application should be taken out and why? My third concern is with regard to the small settlement of Fransfontein, recently declared as a settlement (when it should already have reached the status of Village Council).Recently, a concerned group of young people organised themselves to query one of the conservancies in the area, which is the //Hûab-Conservancy, due to irregularities they had witnessed there.These people were and are concerned about the fact that the conservancy does not benefit the people of the conservancy, and that only certain “elites” share the cake.Unfortunately, plans have already been put in motion by people in higher authorities in the Conservancy, including traditional councillors, who are only supposed to be advisors in such organisations, to thwart the plans of these young people, by way that the conservancy vehicle is now going to these areas, (with these traditional councillors on board) to campaign and lobby support so as to derail the plans of these young people.Also with regard to Fransfontein, we want to know from the Ministry of RLGHRD, or whichever Ministry’s responsibility it is, why traditional councillors of the local traditional authority, are still receiving their salaries/ allowances, because we do not see any work that they are doing here for the past three years? They are not holding meetings to inform the public about their plans, they are not implementing any developmental plans to benefit the people of the local population, thus they do not serve the local population, so in whose names they are receiving these salaries/ allowances! Even among themselves, they have disputes, and until now, we do not know who the actual “headmen/women” are.We thank you very much in advance for publishing our letter, but this is only a prelude to what is still coming, because next time, we will broadly elaborate about these problems we face here, thus we are requesting the intervention of the ACC in the affairs of the Kunene.Kunene Anti-Corruption Group Via e-mail Note: Name and address provided – Ed