Cops defend heavy-handedness
The police claim they used minimum force during a student protest earlier this week.
The police insist they operated within the parameters of the law, amid allegations that they beat and chased students from the city centre to the edges of Katutura during a protest action earlier this week.
On Tuesday a group of students staged a peaceful protest at the higher education ministry, demanding that it make funds available to the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) to pay their fees.
The students were confronted by allegedly overtly aggressive Special Reserve Force members.
Police spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi said yesterday the students had refused to leave the ministry building after their meeting with minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi.
That, he said, prompted the police to employ minimum force.
He said minimum force may include rubber bullets, water cannons and stun grenades.
In response to accusations that some students were wounded by the police, Kanguatjivi said no complaints had been laid in this regard.
“When people are running, sometimes there are stampedes; these people could have fallen,” he said.
The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) has accused the police of brutalising students and abusing their powers to remove them from the minister's office, adding that their protest was peaceful and orderly.
It added that armed police officers removed their negotiating team from the minister's boardroom during the negotiations.
“The removal was humiliating, degrading and an insult to our human dignity and personal integrity. Our benevolence and pure intentions were further reciprocated by nothing but savage antics, as the special field force were called to a peaceful gathering… to assault students with disdain and horrific brutality, which inflicted serious injuries on many of our students, resulted in the seizure of students' personal belongings,” Nanso said.
It also alleged that some students were unaccounted for, but the police denied having arrested anyone.
Kandjii-Murangi said the police's behaviour was uncalled for.
According to her there was no need to become violent. She added the students should also not have resisted police instructions to vacate the premises. “The students came really in a peaceful manner and they were very well organised,” she said.
According to Nanso, a new contract breaching the terms agreed upon by NSFAF and students in 2015 was drafted, meaning that students would now need to add a certain amount to the fixed non-tuition N$17 000 grant given to all funded students.
“The N$17 000 is not enough and most of us will not be able to afford the remaining amount in order to settle our tuition and non-tuition fees, which may lead to some of us not writing examinations and getting our results,” the students said. During the protest they demanded that this contract be terminated as soon as possible and should the minister fail to advocate for this, she too should terminate her contract as minister. Kandjii-Murangi, however, informed the students that NSFAF had indeed fulfilled its promise to the students, adding that it had paid the students' full tuition fees, although cases may arise in which students are required to use their own money to supplement the tuition and non-tuition fees paid by NSFAF due to the differences in fields of study.
The minister urged the students to understand the current situation and help meet the government halfway, until such time the government is back on its feet.
On Tuesday a group of students staged a peaceful protest at the higher education ministry, demanding that it make funds available to the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) to pay their fees.
The students were confronted by allegedly overtly aggressive Special Reserve Force members.
Police spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi said yesterday the students had refused to leave the ministry building after their meeting with minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi.
That, he said, prompted the police to employ minimum force.
He said minimum force may include rubber bullets, water cannons and stun grenades.
In response to accusations that some students were wounded by the police, Kanguatjivi said no complaints had been laid in this regard.
“When people are running, sometimes there are stampedes; these people could have fallen,” he said.
The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) has accused the police of brutalising students and abusing their powers to remove them from the minister's office, adding that their protest was peaceful and orderly.
It added that armed police officers removed their negotiating team from the minister's boardroom during the negotiations.
“The removal was humiliating, degrading and an insult to our human dignity and personal integrity. Our benevolence and pure intentions were further reciprocated by nothing but savage antics, as the special field force were called to a peaceful gathering… to assault students with disdain and horrific brutality, which inflicted serious injuries on many of our students, resulted in the seizure of students' personal belongings,” Nanso said.
It also alleged that some students were unaccounted for, but the police denied having arrested anyone.
Kandjii-Murangi said the police's behaviour was uncalled for.
According to her there was no need to become violent. She added the students should also not have resisted police instructions to vacate the premises. “The students came really in a peaceful manner and they were very well organised,” she said.
According to Nanso, a new contract breaching the terms agreed upon by NSFAF and students in 2015 was drafted, meaning that students would now need to add a certain amount to the fixed non-tuition N$17 000 grant given to all funded students.
“The N$17 000 is not enough and most of us will not be able to afford the remaining amount in order to settle our tuition and non-tuition fees, which may lead to some of us not writing examinations and getting our results,” the students said. During the protest they demanded that this contract be terminated as soon as possible and should the minister fail to advocate for this, she too should terminate her contract as minister. Kandjii-Murangi, however, informed the students that NSFAF had indeed fulfilled its promise to the students, adding that it had paid the students' full tuition fees, although cases may arise in which students are required to use their own money to supplement the tuition and non-tuition fees paid by NSFAF due to the differences in fields of study.
The minister urged the students to understand the current situation and help meet the government halfway, until such time the government is back on its feet.
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