((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013)
The dictionary defines the word oxymoron as
“a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms” for example “ground
pilot”, “living dead” and “dark light”. This month I wish to add “Good Namibian
Customer Service” as a term which is contradictory.
Normally I am an optimistic person to see
the positive outcomes of any situation. But this past month has given me a very
trying situation to deal with. Let me explain:
A friend of mine has applied for a work
permit from the Ministry of Home Affairs since 2010. He applied via our Embassy
in London and was told it could take three to six months. In the meanwhile, he
received a standard tourism visa to visit the country to explore the options
for doing his study research for his Doctorates thesis. The work he would be
involved in is assisting on the farms where the research is being done. The
work itself is voluntary in nature and he would receive a volunteers’
allowance. So no danger of taking employment from a Namibian and the research
work would in fact create employment during the five year study period. After
returning to England and waiting for the required period he contacted the
Embassy who still had not got a reply from Namibia. He was advised to apply for
a work visa (three months) and it would be soon forthcoming.
That was three years ago. Since then he has
had to apply for multiple extensions for a work visa and all were granted till
early this year. The extension was not granted and he had to return to London
while a new application for a work permit was made. Apparently the original
work permit application (from 2010 has been mislaid.
Once again an application was made for a
work permit as well as for the work visa which would allow him to return. The
work visa for three months was granted in May 2013 and he returned to finalise
an agreement with the Polytechnic of Namibia and his home University to do
complementary research work with students from both organisations.
In late July he again requested for clarity
on his work permit as well as the extension for his work visa if the permit
application was not yet complete. Imagine his surprise and dismay when he was
informed that his application was lost. The supervisor admitted that he had
seen the application personally – we had requested an employee to check with
him upon submitting the application that the paperwork was fine. Unfortunately
neither the Supervisor nor their Archives could find a copy of either
application even though a file number was allocated.
So once again my friend had to complete the
entire application. This is not as easy as it sounds as he had submitted the
original police clearance certificates, radiological reports, etc. with the
application again after the first file was lost. Luckily most of the documents
had been scanned so we were able to print a reasonable facsimile and this was
accepted by Home Affairs.
My question must then be to our Namibians
whether they are working at government or private institutions, “Do you know
that the Customer is King?” It surely does not seem that way.
