By Matheus
Hamutenya
KEETMANSHOOP – The //Karas Police regional headquarters is being bombarded with applications as people, dominantly the youth, try to enter the country’s police force.
Unemployed youth are scrambling for the 71 places available for the positions of cadet constables in the region.
About 279 application forms have so far been received by the //Karas police headquarters mostly from the vicinity of Keetmanshoop, with other sub-stations in the region yet to bring in their application forms.
With a minimum requirement of 25 points from six subjects in Grade 12, most youth who have not been admitted to any institution of higher learning for one reason or another are hoping to get into the police force.
The //Karas Regional Police Commander, Commissioner Armas Shivute, says the response from the community is positive and the number received so far indicates people are interested, and with the due date still far away, more applications are expected to be received.
“I’m just very happy that people are willing to join the force,” he said happily.
About 9 225 people, mostly youth, are unemployed in the //Karas, which translates to 21.6% unemployment rate in the region, according to the labour force survey of 2013.
More applications are expected to flow in from the sub-stations and with the Grade 12 results released this week, more people are expected to join the scramble for the cadet constable posts.
The hard work of sorting the applications has already started, with a final list of all candidates who met the requirements expected to be forwarded to Windhoek for the final selection of the 71 people.
Shivute explained that the job at hand for his office is to just select all candidates that meet the requirements and forward a list to Windhoek for final selection.
“We don’t want people to say others were selected because they are known, so the final selection will be done in Windhoek,” he emphasized.
A total number of 1 000 cadet constables countrywide are expected to be recruited by the ministry of Safety and Security for the 2015/16 financial year