Spotting the difference between Unam and GRN

By: Jefrey ShapangeWhile celebrating 27 years of economic suffering, and political independence in which we have freedom of speech, but no freedom after speech, our GRN and our beautiful Unam are still living in times of Voster, Verwoerd, Botha, and others.Politics is not really a thing of my nature, but, I enjoy it when I stand as an observer in my own capacity. I enjoy seeing less competent politicians fighting for their position through the manipulation of our people. This makes me speak and write my thoughts in different platform to express my apprehension to what I call “Politics of Own Stomach” (POS). POS is never in shortage as it is very popular in African Leaders. African leaders are more willing to bring large piece of bread home, rather than improving the lives of the next person in abject poverty. This practice has caught many youth, who are more interested in buying expensive Mercedes and SUVs, while the price of a bag of cement is plus or minus N$150, literally speaking, there are about 6 666 bags of cement in one of those cars. So, there are more than 60 bricks in one bag of cement. Thus, 6 666 bags of cement gives 399 960 bricks. Can you imagen how beautiful your house would look like if you spent that million on bricks? Frankly speaking, some African youth, who are believed to be future leaders, are aimless in bringing the continent the same privilege other continents are getting. They are rather interested in blaming colonialism as the cause of the mess they live in. This is because they inherited the spirit of POS from their leaders who live in pretence. Cde Armas Amukwiyu made it clear last week that he is tired of elders using the youth just to benefit themselves.We all know that there is a culture of fear among our youth, a culture of see nothing, do nothing and say nothing. Despite that, we all know that we are facing many challenges. Some of the challenges include those what Cde Amupanda in his 'Truth is Truth' call 'Do Wrong Unit, (DWU)'. The DWU is a demagogue tendency in the leadership where you have those whose preoccupation is waiting to see wrong in others. The DWU was recently used by Unam management to bar three student leaders and expel their president. The University of Namibia, the university of 12 campuses across the country, under the headship of the vice-chancellor, Professor Lazarus Hangula is however shameless to claim to have a student leader not registered for almost six months. Congratulations to them. It is a pity that the university's management with a lot of professors is failing to critically investigate what these student leaders did. This is actually a fundamental problem in our society. We seem to have lost a sense of sophistication such that we cannot separate apples from bananas regardless our academic levels. In India, vice-chancellors are being voted for by deans, faculty officers and lecturers based on their competencies, age and ability to work with people, and it really works; everything goes smoothly, but here in Namibia, pensioners are number one.The problem with our universities in Africa is that they are too politically influenced. The institution of higher learning is an academic institution, not a political institution. As far as I am concerned we only have one political school in Namibia, the Swapo School, where you find politicians over the age of 70. Politicians are also found in parliaments tabling sordid bills, not in institutions. However, if one wants to see real bungling politicians, come to the University of Namibia.The university that does not have enough learning facilities. The university that is building a new administration block at N$340 million, while the lecturers are being paid peanuts. The university that employs people while they have just passed a circular that all job vacancies are put on hold due to the financial status of the country. The university that has only one dining hall as food outlet for students. The university that has just introduced new Acumatica System which is delaying NSFAF payments, yet they want students to clear their balances before 30 June. Instead of solving student issues they are rather interested in barring student leaders from “their” university. They are rather fascinated with victimising innocent student leaders for claiming what they have been promised. They are rather interested in ousting individuals for doing their jobs.The University of Namibia and the Namibian government are birds of same feather. They practise the same witchcraft of dividing youth through coercion. And I repeat that they have divided the youth into groups; marionettes, bootlickers and the militant ones. The marionettes are being promised jobs and high ranks for singing choruses. These bootlickers are living fancy lives, claiming to be hardworking and disciplined, while they actually deceive and sell out their own country.*Jefrey B. Shapange is a youth activist and a final-year student at Unam studying towards his Honours in Secondary Education. He serves as SRC secretary for external affairs.

Spotting the difference between Unam and GRN

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-14

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Spotting the difference between Unam and GRN

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-14

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