WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM
SOME 300 angry former Swapo guerrillas have been camped in the grounds of Namibia’s parliament since Monday, demanding an audience with President Sam Nujoma to complain that they have been unemployed since independence seven years ago.
“I decided to come here to ask for a job,” one ex-guerrilla, Benjamin Gerwiseb, said. “The President promised to give us jobs and he hasn’t yet.”
Nujoma, however, is touring the country and is not expected in Windhoek until next week. A spokesman for the group, Kondja Shili Nghilpangelwa, said: “We know the President is not in Windhoek but we have decided to wait for him until he comes and we are prepared to sleep here no matter how many days. We don’t want to speak to any other Government official, not even the Prime Minister himself.”
“We fought for this country but we have never gained any thing or enjoyed any fruits of independence,” said Nghilpangelwa.