‘I thought my prayers were answered’

Jobless youth share agony of being prank called for polling job at ECN

Kongola-based Meriam Kabika (26) has been searching for a job since she finished school in 2016.

However, she could not secure anything other than occasional ‘piece jobs’.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Kabika said she thought her luck had changed when she received a call last week from an unknown number telling her she had been shortlisted as a polling official and needed to report for training on that Friday.

She was so happy, she rushed to tell her mother the good news.

“The lady sounded so professional, and I had no reason to doubt her. All I could think of is that finally my prayers have been answered. My mom and I started looking for funds for my transportation to Katima Mulilo. None of my family members could assist, so my mother borrowed from someone that owns a cash loan,” she said.

On the Thursday, Kabika travelled to Katima Mulilo, about 100 kilometres away, and stayed at her uncle’s house to report for training early the next morning.

“I showed up bright and early for training. The officials started calling the names of those who were shortlisted. However, I did not hear my name being called. I went to the official to ask if perhaps they made a mistake and forgot to call my name. They checked again on the list, and my name was not there,” she said.

Kabika said she, along with others who were not on the list, told the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) officials that it was impossible that they were not on the list, as they were all called to show up for training.

“They then told us to write our names down so that they could call their human resource department to verify. However, after some time they told us our names are not on the list that the human resources office provided them,” she said.

Kabika said she was in disbelief, waiting around the venue for some hours before she got the courage to leave.

“I felt really bad, and I could not get myself to leave the venue immediately. How could someone be so cruel and make me believe I am shortlisted. I thought I finally had an opportunity to earn an income, even if it’s just temporary,” she said.

Similarly, Duma Kumpoma (27), who has been looking for a job for the past five years, was also called around 09h00 last Tuesday telling him to report for training.

Kumpoma, who did not finish his diploma in junior primary education, started gathering funds for transportation.

“I managed to borrow N$500 from someone for transportation and toiletries. On Thursday I travelled to Katima Mulilo and slept at my friend’s house. The next morning I showed up for training around 08h00. After a few minutes, they started calling the names of the people shortlisted, and I was not on the list.

“I, along with others who were not on the list, asked why our names were not called, and they told us we were not on the list,” he says.

Regional electoral officer Lesley Simwanza says, since the beginning of the training on Friday, they had to do double verification to rule out candidates that were not shortlisted by the ECN human resource office.

He says only 1 003 individuals were shortlisted as polling officials, and they had to send away 80 job-seeking young people that received prank calls.

Upon investigating, they discovered they were not called by someone from the ECN’s human resource office, says Simwanza.

“None of these youth that were called by supposed ECN officials were on the list. We even called the number that called them, but that number was disconnected already. We gave them our official numbers and told them if they do not get a call from any of those numbers, they should ignore.”

Simwanza warns young people to be vigilant of scammers.

ECN spokesperson De Wet Siluka says they observed that many unemployed young people who were not shortlisted reported to various centres across the country claiming to have been contacted by ECN staff.

“We observed similar incidents during the recruitment of staff for the general registration of voters. However, we want to confirm that all shortlisted candidates who were contacted by human resources and indicated their availability have successfully begun their training,” he says.

According to the 2018 Namibia Statistic Agency Labour Force Survey, Zambezi’s unemployment rate stood at 37.68%.

A number of other unemployed youth, like Mulwazi Lubembo, did not receive any prank calls. However, they decided to camp at the training venues in hopes that they would be placed if someone shortlisted did not show up.

“Since Friday, I went to Ngweze Community Hall to stay there, from morning till the afternoon, hoping that I would replace someone that did not show up. However, it seems like everyone shortlisted was in attendance, so I gave up on Tuesday,” Lubembo says.