Niël Terblanché
Job Amupanda, the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader and former Mayor of the City of Windhoek, in his crusade against the Minister of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, Itah Kandjii-Murangi has released a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding that would seemingly have forced the Namibian taxpayer to fund a privately owned university from Malaysia.
Amupanda published a copy of the draft document on his Twitter account and said that the Minister was attempting to force the former acting Chief Executive Officer of the Namibia Training Authority (NTA), Muvatera Ndjoze-Siririka, to sign the MoU with the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.
The agreement would have forced the NTA to provide the university with a list of students that graduated from Vocational Training Centres or TVETSs, as it is referred to in the document, for possible enrolment.
The NTA would also have been responsible for funding the admission fees of such students, participating in programme reviews of learning programmes for the university, participating in the moderation of projects handed in by students, and also participating in the development, design and revision of the university’s curriculum.
Because the NTA is funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Training and Innovation, Namibian taxpayers would ultimately be responsible for funding the privately owned university.
Under the liability clause of the document, the parties indemnified each other against any or all claims, damages and expenses or costs in the event of any claims, damages and expenses as a result of gross negligence, fraud, wilful default, criminal action, or the breach of the agreement by either of the parties, its employees, representatives or agents.
Amupanda did not provide any proof that the MoU was eventually signed by the NTA and Ndjoze-Siririka has been recalled to the ministry in April this year.
A representative of the NTA yesterday confirmed that the NTA did indeed receive a draft of the MoU in November 2021 but that it was never signed.
It is, however, not clear if a different or redrafted version of the document was indeed signed between the Malaysian university and the NTA.
The Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, which has been doing business since 2020, received criticism since its establishment in Namibia.
At the time it was alleged that the university was established through corrupt practices and that it offered unaccredited training programmes.
In response, the university stated that it did indeed apply for registration through the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), and that approval for its establishment was granted in 2019.
Amupanda posted pictures of the draft document’s pages on his social media account and questioned the minister’s authority to force a public institution to enter into such a corrupt agreement.
