Some feast while others beg

DOZENS of revellers boarded busses at Katutura’s Independence Arena on Sunday afternoon having listened to speeches and eaten and drunk their fill at the Khomas Region’s official 14th Independence celebrations.

About 10 km away, at the corner of Hochland Road and Jordaan Street, Matheus Erasmus is licking his dry lips. He and four other men are giving up after waiting in vain since early morning to get a temporary job for the day.They are among hundreds of unemployed men who wait on street corners all day for casual employment.”It’s Independence Day but there is not much joy for us.Today is now too late to get work,” said Erasmus.”We have to start walking back to the location on our hungry stomachs.”Independence Day, which fell on a Sunday, began like any ordinary day for Erasmus – not much to look forward to except to hope he would be lucky to get picked up by someone needing a hand to clean a garden or some other casual job.He left his home in Havana on the north-western edge of Katutura at 07h00, walked through Otjomuise to Pioneerspark, where he sat on a rail at the roadside waiting for a prospective one-day employer.Erasmus said it would not have helped him to join other jubilant Khomas residents for the Independence celebrations because weekends were his best chances of getting a job.”We are independent, which is great, but it’s difficult for me to understand why I cannot get a job,” said Erasmus.Ronald Immanuel believes it has to do with luck.”We came here early in the morning and have found no work this late.We have not been lucky.I guess we just have to find our way back home,” said Immanuel.To try another day is what is emotionally draining for Immanuel.The Windhoek Municipality, he said, had built shading where they could wait, but Immanuel said pick-up points were not serving their purpose.”We are too many, and when someone comes looking for a person or two to employ, we all run to the car.They get scared and drive off,” said Immanuel.They were not allowed to walk around in the suburbs, he said.Police and private security firms officers threatened to arrest them.”So, even on Independence Day we cannot walk freely in the streets.They say we will be stealing, they will arrest us if they find us walking in the suburbs.”By the end of the day of an unsuccessful job hunt, the four men resort to begging for “a few coins” for bread and a lift back to Katutura to repeat the same routine the next day.”What else can we do? At least we are free to look for work,” said Erasmus.The official Independence celebrations at the Independence Arena, where people listened to Deputy Minister of Justice Alpheus !Naruseb deliver President Sam Nujoma’s speech, ended with the distribution of food and drinks.One school boy later said he was happy the country had become independent because people could get free food.He and four other men are giving up after waiting in vain since early morning to get a temporary job for the day.They are among hundreds of unemployed men who wait on street corners all day for casual employment.”It’s Independence Day but there is not much joy for us.Today is now too late to get work,” said Erasmus.”We have to start walking back to the location on our hungry stomachs.”Independence Day, which fell on a Sunday, began like any ordinary day for Erasmus – not much to look forward to except to hope he would be lucky to get picked up by someone needing a hand to clean a garden or some other casual job.He left his home in Havana on the north-western edge of Katutura at 07h00, walked through Otjomuise to Pioneerspark, where he sat on a rail at the roadside waiting for a prospective one-day employer.Erasmus said it would not have helped him to join other jubilant Khomas residents for the Independence celebrations because weekends were his best chances of getting a job.”We are independent, which is great, but it’s difficult for me to understand why I cannot get a job,” said Erasmus.Ronald Immanuel believes it has to do with luck.”We came here early in the morning and have found no work this late.We have not been lucky.I guess we just have to find our way back home,” said Immanuel.To try another day is what is emotionally draining for Immanuel.The Windhoek Municipality, he said, had built shading where they could wait, but Immanuel said pick-up points were not serving their purpose.”We are too many, and when someone comes looking for a person or two to employ, we all run to the car.They get scared and drive off,” said Immanuel.They were not allowed to walk around in the suburbs, he said.Police and private security firms officers threatened to arrest them.”So, even on Independence Day we cannot walk freely in the streets.They say we will be stealing, they will arrest us if they find us walking in the suburbs.”By the end of the day of an unsuccessful job hunt, the four men resort to begging for “a few coins” for bread and a lift back to Katutura to repeat the same routine the next day.”What else can we do? At least we are free to look for work,” said Erasmus.The official Independence celebrations at the Independence Arena, where people listened to Deputy Minister of Justice Alpheus !Naruseb deliver President Sam Nujoma’s speech, ended with the distribution of food and drinks.One school boy later said he was happy the country had become independent because people could get free food.