Kandjii-Murangi plays 'Game of Thrones' battle over COSDEF

The higher education ministry has launched a bid to remove former prime minister Nahas Angula as board chairperson of the Community Skills Development Foundation (COSDEF) and replace him with its minister, Itah Kandjii-Murangi.Kandjii-Murangi is apparently leading the charge to replace Angula as chairperson and also wants the entire board dissolved.This was revealed to Namibian Sun by the ministry's director for vocational education and training, Muvatera Ndjoze-Siririka.He was responding to a recent article in Namibian Sun which lifted the lid on how Angula and Kandjii-Murangi are embroiled in a dispute over the country's community skills development centres (COSDECs), which are run by the COSDEF.Ndjoze-Siririka said Angula and Kandjii-Murangi had held consultative meetings to see how best the outcomes of a “scoping mission” could be implemented.The first meeting was held on 21 November 2016 to appraise the new minister on COSDEC operations. The second meeting took place on 5 March this year. “This meeting involved some of the COSDEF board members and the chairperson,” explained Ndjoze-Siririka. He said the purpose of this meeting was to see how best the outcomes of a scoping mission could be implemented, in terms of streamlining technical and vocational education and training (TVET) providers, which would include the COSDECS.“The ministry wanted a soundboard to take into account the new political dispensation. That is, to find out from the board whether they would be amenable to the idea of yielding their positions to the current (political and sector) occupants. In this case, the chairperson (Angula) being replaced by the current higher education minister,” he said.Angula as chairperson, as well as fellow trustees Paulus Kapiya, Len le Roux, Justin Ellis and Albertina Heita, have all served since the inception of the organisation in 1998.Ndjoze-Siririka said they have all since left the organisations they used to present on the COSDEF board.“They are Kapiya who was representing the youth ministry, Roux was the representative of Rössing Foundation, Ellis who was representing the basic education ministry, and Heita represented the higher education ministry's directorate of vocational education and training.”Ndjoze-Siririka said COSDEF was deliberately started as a trust by the then education ministry as a community-based organisation. To that end, the ministry has an obligation to fund it. The ministry's intention was to have an organisation that was closer to the community and that would immediately respond to its needs. The COSDEF also aimed to act as an agency that would afford the local community the opportunity to have their informally acquired skills or indigenous skills certified.Angula, who unsuccessfully stood against President Hage Geingob for the Swapo presidency during last year's party elective congress, confirmed to Namibian Sun last week that Kandjii-Murangi had written to him last year to enquire how the COSDECs were established.He said the COSDECs are unique training institutions targeting out-of-school and unemployed youth, but the minister of higher education has been pushing for the COSDECs to introduce entry requirements. He said those requirements will deny the youth on the margin an opportunity to have a start in life.Angula said other private training providers are supported by the vocational education and training (VET) levy, through the Namibia Training Authority (NTA), such as the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT), but government is not questioning them.“Why does the minister not take over NIMT? Why only the COSDECs? If the minister still has a problem, let her proceed with whatever action she deems necessary,” he fumed.Currently 85% of the COSDECs' funding comes directly from the foundation. The COSDEF budget is funded by the education ministry, through the NTA. Special projects are funded by various donor agencies, the private sector and individual sponsorships.Each COSDEC is expected to generate 15% of its total yearly budget through its own initiatives.Ndjoze-Siririka said originally the COSDEF was funded directly by the then education ministry, but later this function was transferred to the NTA.“The foundation is funded on a unit cost basis. This amount was initially about N$3 000 per trainee per annum. But it has now reached N$ 14 300. What the foundation makes per annum is dependent on the number of trainees they have in a particular year. For example, if they have 2 200 trainees then they would have about N$31 460 000 per annum.” The ministry also refuted claims that it has reported or registered any dispute with COSDEF at the attorney-general's office.ILENI NANDJATO

Kandjii-Murangi plays 'Game of Thrones' battle over COSDEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-14

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Kandjii-Murangi plays 'Game of Thrones' battle over COSDEF

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Namibian Sun 2025-08-14

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