The livelihoods of car guards in Windhoek's Central Business District are under threat following the outsourcing of parking management by the City of Windhoek to KeyPlot Investment, effective July 19.

There are about 58 car guards who have been operating in the CBD for years.

At the time when parking metres were operational, each one of them paid 60 dollars to the municipality monthly.

And although the parking lots were managed by the City of Windhoek, they too made sure that your car was not broken into.

However, with the outsourcing of the function, they could still keep their jobs but be employed by KeyPlot Investment at a monthly salary of N$3,000.

Mpingana Jeremiah is not entirely happy with the deal.

"At least I was called in for an interview, and they said I should go to their offices because they have recruited me. They told me my salary would be N$3000, but the money that I make on a daily basis, which is between 200 and 300 dollars, I should now hand it to them. So I asked about the taxi money, and they said I should see where I can get my taxi money."

Mpingana said he has been feeding his family by guarding cars for about twenty years.

"I have four children, and they all go to different schools. I pay about N$1600 per month for transportation. I will not be able to do this if my daily tips are taken away by the new management. And I cannot be standing in the sun just to hand over my daily tips to someone who is always sitting in the office. My life is even at risk because the criminals try to attack us. So this new system is not going to work out."

Bartholomeus Kanime, also a car guard in the CBD, added that they are fit for the job as they are familiar with criminal faces around the area.

"I don't think it will be fair for us to be moved from our parking areas because we have assisted the municipality and the police for so long. We know the criminals around here. And they are always saying mean things to us. We don't know what to do; please help us. We are even the ones who help the police with their crime reports."

To qualify for placement by KeyPlot Investment, the COVID-19 vaccination is reportedly a must.

However, after going through all the troubles, Kanime did not land the job.

"I went for the interview. After completing the interview, they asked me to go get a COVID-19 vaccination. I got vaccinated, and they told me they couldn't work with me because my name appeared on the municipality list."

KeyPlot Investment's Operations Manager, David Angula, noted the car guards will be the first to be considered for employment.

"Initially, they were the first people we interviewed because it was also part of the recruitment process for us, who are managing these parking lots, to consider them first. We are not fully operational, but we have a few sites where we are operating and where we have the ex-car guards as our marshals."

In response, the City of Windhoek's Spokesperson Lydia Amutenya added that parking, as a property of the City of Windhoek, needs to provide sustainable services through a public bid.

"Parking has been free in most areas of the city because we did not have suitable service providers to manage these parking spaces for us, and we went through the procurement process to find a bidder. It is important because the parking needs to be metered, and there should be money coming in."