Windhoek
In response to ongoing speculation and concern among students and family members, Namibian Institute of Bankers (IOB) Student Representative Council (SRC) president Simon Nangolo has rubbished social media reports suggesting he is dead.
Nangolo’s response puts to rest a week of anxiety among his family and fellow students, who presumed him killed in an apparent car accident, following misleading messages posted on social media. Nangolo on Friday confirmed that he is alive and well after news of his presumed death went viral, following a text message that claimed he had died in a car accident on the Otjiwarongo road.
Simson Nangolo, who is a final year Banking, Finance and Credit student at IOB, is distressed that someone managed to get hold of his phone – which he had lost on Monday last week – and started sending messages to his close relatives and fellow students, including the National Students Organisation (Nanso) leadership, that he had died in a horrific car accident.
One of the SMSes in circulation says: “Dear IOB students, be informed that IOB SRC president Mr Simson Nangolo died in a car accident on the Otjiwarongo road.” Another message sent to a fellow student says: “Sorry Mm, I told you because your number is saved Mm Magda IOB, we will finalise it and tell you, I am Simson’s sister.”
The messages, which soon reached his parents in the north, gave his mother such a shock she went into a coma after she heard about her son’s purported death in the hoax SMS.
“I lost my cellphone last week Monday on my way home from town. Maybe someone picked it up and starting texting people that I am dead in a car accident. On Tuesday I went to Khomas Grove, where I met three of our students and they told me that the school announced that I had died in a car accident. I was very shocked to hear such news and even the students I met were scared of me, thinking I’m a ghost, or I’m Lazarus who was resurrected from the dead,” he said.
He says the IOB even notified the police and contacted hospitals in Okahandja and Otjiwarongo to confirm the rumours of his death, but none of the hospitals had a record of any recently deceased by that name.
Simson renewed his mobile number on Tuesday and phoned his sister in the north where the family had gathered to mourn him, to tell her that he is very much alive.
A mere three months ago he received a text message from an unknown number saying, “You are going to die”,. He says he is not shaken by such threats. “I won’t be scared or back down because of these threats. Whoever is intimidating me is wasting his or her time. This is an independent Namibia and our Constitution allows us the right to life,” he remarked.
Speaking to New Era on Friday, Nangolo said he is not sure who is circulating the SMS, but he assumed it is someone with a personal vendetta against him, after he rallied fellow students at the institution to protest and lock staff out last month, bringing to a halt the IOB’s academic and administrative activities.
Accompanied by Nanso members at the time, including its president Wilhelm Wilhelm, and in the presence of police, irate IOB students protested against the management style of the CEO of IOB, John-Day Mande.
IOB students are still waiting for a response from IOB Council chairperson, Ipumbu Shiimi, to remove Mandey, saying they want a competent person with a Master’s or PhD degree in education and administration, who can be interviewed and scrutinised by the IOB Council and its examination committee.