As the old adage goes, when a hyena wants to eat its children, it first accuses them of smelling like goats.

This African proverb educates us that individuals hellbent on foul play will always find excuses to do so. 

The unheralded bravado with which Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) attacked the media for reporting on an array of potential maleficence at an institution once primed a mecca of excellence, would make any reasonable person think they may have been using their credit cards too often for imbibing. 

The institution’s spokesperson, without providing alternatives to the facts contained in several articles, accused the media of being biased and pushing a certain narrative through negative publicity. 

An institution of that magnitude that has produced some of the best public relations practitioners and journalists must know better. 

Journalism is not public relations and doesn’t exist to nurse egos. The media exist to provide facts, educate and entertain, without fear, favour or prejudice. No amount of scaremongering by anyone will deter us from this duty.

But Nust’s problems didn’t start with the appointment of vice chancellor Erold Naomab. 

While the institution has grown at breakneck speed over the last two decades and have secured university status under the previous regime, very little was done to groom successors to the top structure. Many of who held on to their positions for dear life until well after they were supposed to retire.

However, the council allowed the current management to run roughshod over the institution’s rules and abdicated their duty to hold these excessively remunerated officials to account. It is apt that their term ended in chaos. 

While the institution is supposed to train the next generation of Namibia’s workers, scientists and entrepreneurs, the Nust staff have complained that the institution is run like a village cuca shop.

The university’s spokesperson, John Haufiku confirmed this week that Naomab has unlimited powers to use Nust’s credit card.  This gives credence to allegations that some managers have been abusing the institution’s credit cards. 

When the spending of public funds becomes discretionary, where a single individual can spend it at whim, without accounting to anyone, we must be worried.  That said, the crisis at Nust is a serious one and if left unresolved could collapse one of the biggest institutions in the land.   Nust is a public entity receiving hundreds of millions of public funds annually. Out of the total N$3.83 billion budget allocation to the higher education ministry for the 2023/24 financial year, a total of N$995 million is reserved for Nust. 

What is concerning is, the institution has failed to account for public resources entrusted to it. The last available Nust annual report can be traced back to 2018.

When the accountability of public resources is relegated to a mere option rather than a must, we must be worried. But who is on the receiving end when Nust’s top brass have clearly failed to provide leadership and direction or at least take the public into their confidence? It is the students, staff and most importantly, tax payers!

While multiple storms have been brewing around the institution, Naomab has not publicly pronounced himself on anything. 

As we speak, male students at the university have had to fend for themselves on the accommodation front for the last three years as their hostel’s doors were shut, following the institution’s failure to renovate it. 

To add insult to injury, Nust is without a council, its supreme policy-making body, while its management is divided along tribal and ethnic lines with a pending investigation on the instruction of the Anti-Corruption Commission. The situation makes the call by Popular Democratic Movement lawmaker Maximilliant Katjimune for a probe into the affairs of the institution even more urgent. However, higher education minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi hinted that a new Nust council would be in place by Monday. 

Taxpayers would hope that this brouhaha will soon be seen in the rear-view mirror and that Nust will return to its vision, to be: A premier technological university known for knowledge creation, innovation, and entrepreneurship.