WINDHOEK – A group of 45 students studying at Midland University in Gweru, Zimbabwe are stranded in Namibia because the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) has reportedly failed to settle their accounts in that country.
The outstanding money is to enable the stranded students to register for the second semester, which they say ended on July 20, 2013. The students who do not want to be named said they do not know the way forward. They say only about six of their colleagues went back to Zimbabwe, because their parents gave them money to go and settle the outstanding fees in order for them to resume their classes. “Most of us can not afford to pay on our own that is why we are still here. We are worried about our future, because we do not know when the Ministry of Education will pay,” one student said.
Approached for comment, Percy Tjahere, NSFAF Director for Communications on Friday said students at Midland University are there as a result of the long-standing relations Namibia has with Zimbabwe. He said about 180 students are registered there and almost 90 percent are at school and have started with classes. Their fields of study range from agriculture, livestock management, arts in development to education. “The rest of the students, about 30 visited our office last week Friday. This is the time when we had a visit from the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi and their payments were processed and they were requested to come back on Monday (5 August). We were informed that some of the students’ accounts were not active and some provided wrong account numbers,” he said.
Tjahere said the situation was rectified on Tuesday (August 6) and some students received their money already. “I must make it clear that we pay student fees to students themselves, because it is difficult for them to exchange money in Zimbabwe,” he explained. Moreover, he said currently there are only six students whose payments have not been processed and this is due to the fact that the NSFAF has not received their letters of registration.
“We believe that these students might not have registered for the academic year. I had a meeting with the student representatives from Midland and we agreed that they must provide certain information in order to allow our team enough time when we will be visiting them,” he noted.
Story by Albertina Nakale