Create job opportunities at Groot Aub – councillor

WINDHOEK rural constituency councillor Penina Ita says there are many opportunities that could help address the problem of unemployment at the Groot Aub settlement, located over 40 kilometres south-east of Windhoek.

Speaking to Nampa on Friday, Ita noted that the majority of people in the settlement have given up due to the lack of employment opportunities and poverty.

“There are many opportunities in this community for the people to create something for themselves. We must know that the problem of unemployment is not only here, it’s a national problem. The government alone cannot provide employment,” she added.

She, therefore, encouraged community members there to use their talents in order to create employment, citing gardening as a potential source of income for the residents.

The councillor also called on investors and technocrats to come up with ideas of creating the much-needed employment opportunities.

“In this community, we have a poultry project. The locals can then supply feed for the chickens, while others can manufacture fences, or do the feeding and cleaning of the poultry farm. This community must first believe and do things for ourselves,” she pointed out.

Her remarks follow concerns raised by several Groot Aub residents who said in the past two decades the only employment opportunities created were from the school, the clinic and the police station, which at most times do not employ locals.

Aside from those opportunities, most locals do not work, and those who do get employed on surrounding farms, at Rehoboth or in Windhoek, they added.

Israel Mukumba, the owner of CJC Agri Training Centre at Groot Aub, echoed Ita’s views, saying projects like his are capable of helping small communities fight poverty by creating employment.

The centre runs a chicken-rearing farm as well as a horticulture project and employs 12 people, who take the knowledge they gain to their homes and help their dependants to survive, he added. – Nampa