Matheus Hamutenya
Keetmanshoop-Many young people usually sit at home wondering what to do next with their lives after failing Grade 10, but a young man at Keetmanshoop has pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and is now the proud owner of a garage that repairs motor vehicles and he even employs others.
Nicolaus ‘Kambinda’ Ndara, 30, like many young Namibians did not meet the required points to pass Grade 10 in 2002, but after sitting at home doing nothing he decided not to become part of the statistics of unemployed youth, and he moved from Rundu to Keetmanshoop in 2006 where he started doing odd jobs – and the rest as they say is history.
He is now the proud owner of a registered business in the name of Kambinda Car Repair cc, a garage located in Keetmanshoop near Ileni and he says his business is thriving and he now employs two other young men permanently.
He narrated to New Era how he started his garage in 2014 upon realising he had acquired the necessary skills to fix cars and that he could make more money than he was making while working for someone else.
“In 2014 I decided to start working for myself. I only had one tool box at the start and from the little I made I kept buying more tools which allowed me to do more work on cars,” he said.
Although business is now going well, and with him having finally registered his business last year, he said it has not always been a smooth ride and he was sometimes forced to start all over, with the biggest hurdle being when his tool box was stolen in the infant stage of his business, leaving him with only one spanner.
He recounted how he had to do minor work with the only spanner he had, and by using spanners from the owners of the cars he was repairing, until he had saved up enough money to buy other tools, and he enthuses the garage is now fully equipped to deal with any mechanical problems.
Ndara said he employs a secretary and a mechanical assistant, who is his brother, and he predicts that with the current customer base the business should grow bigger in future.
“In future we want to expand and employ more people and also add a tow-in service so that we can assist our customers even when they have a breakdown far from the garage,” he said.
Ndara is very well known amongst car owners in the area where he operates from and with his good knowledge of engines, gearboxes, wheel bearings, brakes, lights and other mechanical and auto-electrical works, many people, especially taxi drivers, do not hesitate to bring their cars to his garage.