Africa-Press – Namibia. “PICK me! I’m a hard worker!” a man screams at a car driving past the Walvis Bay railway.
David Shiwalo (55) is sitting on a rock in the sun along the Walvis Bay railway track with eight other men. All of them are waiting to be offered manual jobs.
Shiwalo has been sitting here for over a year since losing his job at one of the companies at the coastal town. Finding a job has been hard. “I don’t want to mention the company’s name. Who knows, maybe one day I will be reinstated when they are doing well again. It has been tough.
“There were a lot of lay-offs because of the Covid situation and this Fishrot issue. It has left many of us hungry. My children in the north think their father has deserted them, and it really hurts me, but I do not have money,” he says.
Three other men are huddled together near Shiwalo, having a conversation to pass the time. They too wake up in the early morning hours hoping their luck would turn.
“Some of us have been coming here for over two years. It is becoming harder, because the number of people keep increasing every day.
“I have been here for almost two weeks without being picked up for work.
“This is the only spot where we can sit. If you go sit somewhere in town, you could get into trouble with the authorities,” says Julius Ipinge.
He says companies occasionally send someone to pick up some of them to help offload cargo from vessels. “That for us is a lucky break, but after working from eight to five, you may come back with something like N$100.
“All those hours of picking up heavy boxes! But what choice do we have? At least you can buy bread,” he says.
A little while later, about 15 men run towards a passing car, shouting again: “Pick me! I’m a hard worker!” “This is our lifestyle,” says *Jerry Jonas.
“We hope this article will show people there are people who are willing to work. We are not waking up at five to come sit here all day long. We need to work,” he says. Josef Sam says most of the men along the railway were raised in good homes and do not want to resort to crime to survive.
“We voted for leaders. We keep going to the councillor’s office to ask to at least mention us to some companies when they need help for a day or so, but all we hear are promises,” he says. Meanwhile, Walvis Bay Urban constituency councillor Deriou Benson says he is aware of the group.
“Some of them paid a visit to the mayor’s office last year, and he informed me that we will meet with them soon to asses, their situation. Most of them do manual jobs, and we are trying to look at possibilities to incorporate them in some businesses. We are really hoping to find a solution for them,” he says.
The men, who call themselves “the railway group”, are also appealing to good Samaritans to consider dropping off a bottle of water for them to make the wait bearable.
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