Unemployment haunts Karibib

AT JUST 25, and pregnant with her second child, Slivie Antonius left home in pursuit of a new life for her and her child.

Antonius is an entrepreneur who operates a mobile hair salon and sells a few grocery items from a makeshift dome that she calls home.

She sells assorted pasta, chips, sweets and cheap whiskey.

Antonius is part of a growing number of unemployed youths at Karibib, who have been battling the odds to make ends meet in a town where employment opportunities are rare.

found Antonius in front of her rented home, working on a customer’s hair, in the company of Elizabeth Simon, a friend.

Dressed in casual shorts, a blue blouse and carrying her baby in a sling, she casually invites us for a seat.

Antonius, or Toni, as she is called by her friends, travelled from her home town of Ondangwa to Karibib in search of better opportunities.

“My mother is my inspiration; she has been a small business owner ever since I can remember. She has a kapana business, and she travels to Cape Town to buy and resell designer clothes, and she does hair as well, that’s where I learned it from.

The ability to provide for myself is pure joy to me,” she smiled.

Antonius said her life had changed dramatically in the past two years. Now she balances between her work at the hair salon, parenting and her small business in addition to saving up to go to school.

“My business is one of my priorities, but school is on top of the list,” she said.

She hopes to save up enough money to register at the vocational training centre for a needlework course.

“I couldn’t burden my mother any more; my mother has supported me and helped me in every way.”

Elizabeth Simon (28), who has been living at Karibib for seven years, has had her fair share of challenges with employment opportunities at the town.

Simon told that nobody from the Harambee informal settlement works for the Navachab gold mine.

Job opportunities are so rare and when there is an occasional vacancy, the prerequisites are for skilled workers.

“Why can they not employ us and give us on-the-job training,” she exclaimed.

“Simon also noted that the mine has not done anything to improve the town. There have not been any corporate social [responsibility] projects from the mine,” she said.

Thirty-year-old Jonas Rhoman, an unemployed father of three, also sought employment opportunities to no avail.

He hopes for better platforms in the future.

“I would like to build my children a home and preferably get married one day. And I need a stable job to be able to provide for my family,” he said.