Niel Terblanche
Scammers using a careers brochure to trick desperate young people into thinking that the Namibian Defence Force was busy with a recruitment drive were stopped in their tracks by the Ministry of Defence.
The fake recruitment message spread on social media platforms last week and by the end of the week and after being inundated with calls from young Namibians who asked where to report for possible admission to the Namibian Defence Force the ministry was forced to issue an official statement to declare that it was indeed a scam.
Scammers often make use of this strategy to pilfer money from desperate people by telling them that if they pay a certain amount of money, their recruitment into an institution like for instance the NDF or Namibian Police would be guaranteed. Even legitimate recruitment drives are often hijacked by brazen scammers in the same way.
Lieutenant Colonel Petrus Shilumbu, Acting head of Public Relations at the Ministry of Defence said in the statement that the ministry has been receiving queries from the public enquiring about the Namibian Defence Force recruitment, allegedly advertised through social media.
“The Ministry takes note of the NDF recruitment requirements brochure circulated in the social media and which seems to draw the public attention on a large scale.”
According to the Lieutenant Colonel Shilumbu the brochure in question is genuine and belongs to the Ministry of Defence, however the Ministry rejects the responsibility of circulating it via the social media.
“In addition the same brochure does not invite applications from the public but simply highlights various career choices within the NDF, and requirements to join the NDF. The Ministry of Defence thus appeals to the public that it is not recruiting at the moment and what is circulating on social media is fake news.”
The flurry of calls to the Ministry of Defence follows on the heels of chaos that erupted at the premises of TransNamib a while ago when thousands of desperate young people turned up to apply for only 40 temporary jobs.
Pandemonium erupted a day after some of the TransNamib recruits were put through stringent physical test to establish if they would be able to do the hard manual work when rumours started to fly around that those that did indeed manage to apply were not considered for the available jobs.
Hundreds of young people stormed the railway station in Ondangwa and demanded answers from TransNamib officials.
In the end the Namibian Police had to intervene to calm the situation and to clear the matter up.
