Minister of higher education, technology and innovation Itah Kandjii-Murangi says there is no collapse of leadership at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust).
Murangi said this while providing a ministerial response to questions posed by Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) lawmaker Maximalliant Katjimune in parliament recently.
Katjimune asked the minister to investigate governance issues at Nust, which he described as being on the verge of collapse.
He said it has become imperative that the minister intervenes.
In her response, Kandjii-Murangi said it was irresponsible and immature for anyone, particularly one who has walked the corridors of the country’s well run universities, to allege collapse in the leadership when there was none.
“I admit that there were a number of issues of concern at Nust that surfaced in the media some few months back. As a line minister, I engaged the former council on those allegations,” Kandjii-Murangi said.
The former council informed her that they will engage an independent party to investigate the matter but before that they needed to establish the basic facts regarding the origin of the allegation letters, she said.
“You would recall that many of those letters were unsigned. This happened close to the end of the very last extension of the former council’s tenure. An interim council was appointed to take over where the former council left off,” Kandjii-Murangi added.
She said it is notable that since the incoming board commenced, the council has worked hard to attend to what they deemed critical.
“I am happy to say, normalcy has returned to Nust. As we speak the appointment of the new Nust council is ongoing.”
BACKGROUND
In April, The Namibian reported that Nust management and the Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) had begun engagements on concerns raised by the union on behalf of university staff.
A month before, Napwu issued a letter noting that Nust had been accused of unfair labour practices, tribalism, policy manipulation and maladministration by its employees.
The letter, addressed to the former chairperson of the council, Florette Nakusera, alleged that Nust management had engaged in an unlawful restructuring exercise, among other grievances.
Napwu claimed that the institution-wide restructuring exercise was being conducted in secret, with no stakeholder engagement to date, and that the human resources department had not responded to staff inquiries about the changes.
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