• By Marx Itamalo

Regional councilors in Oshikoto, Ohangwena and Omusati regions have expressed concern over the exploitation and abused of members of the San community who reside in their constituencies. 

The councilors further claim the San people are often used to do various jobs without remuneration and at times are paid alcohol or food.  Protasius Neshuku, the regional councilor of Eengodi constituency in Oshikoto region indicated that some members of the San community are cattle herders or domestic servants. 

“People are employing them but they do not want to pay them. How do you pay somebody with food or alcohol?” he questioned.   Neshuku explained that he has tried to address the issue by acting as a mediator between some employers and San people, but lasting solutions are never found in the labour disputes. 

“On several occasions I [engaged] the employers and they would pay what they owe the workers but after some time, you will discover they have gone back to square one. I think they are taking advantage of their vulnerability,” Neshuku stated. 

He vowed to involve officials from the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations. The councilor of Otamanzi constituency in Omusati region, Johannes Iyambo, noted that many San children are employed as cattle herders at places such as Amarika, Onamatanga and Omutambowomawe farming areas and as help hands in homesteads. 

According to him, he has in the past engaged farmers in the areas to sensitize them on Namibian labour laws that prohibits the use of children and the need for them to attend school but to no avail. “Even on radio and during our community meetings, I have raised the issue. The San children are not naturally interested in school and this exacerbates the situation. 

“The employers do not care about their future, as long as their animals are being taken care of and looked after,” Iyambo stressed. He narrated that in 2023, officials from the then ministry of gender and child welfare, visited the constituency to educate the San community on the matter of children attending school. 

“It was at the beginning of the year and many San children were enrolled in schools, but many soon dropped out to go to back to their jobs.” Iyambo is of the opinion that a large portion of the money the children get as their wages, goes to their parents who spend it mainly on alcohol rather than on food and other necessities.

Ohangwena region’s Omundaungilo and Okongo constituencies are recorded to have a high concentration of San communities, of which some are accommodated in houses built by the government.  Although they receive government support in the form of food and clothes quarterly, they in turn sell these assistance or exchanged them for alcohol, according to Okongo councilor Efraim Lebeus.

“I really do not know what to say or do anymore. We have tried our best but our brothers and sisters do not want to listen. We have engaged them many times but there is no change. When you speak, they nod and clap their hands vowing to stop but as soon as you are gone, they go back to their old ways,” s