Paheja Siririka

WINDHOEK – #ADollar4MyFees campaign is intended to raise funds with the support of students and staff members to help the University of Namibia (Unam) recover student debts. 

This is in light of the staggering amount students owe and are unable to pay due to financial constraints. The Student Representative Council (SRC) at Unam suggested measures to settle the more than N$300 million students owe. SRC Secretary of Finance Ginola Nauseb says 459 students could not afford registration fees this year, and of this number only 212 managed to register. He further discloses that students who are pursuing post-graduate and diploma courses are affected the most. The SRC discussed the issue with Unam management, addressing with it recovering the debt, the high amount that students are expected to pay at registration and the issue of some students failing a module or two and as a result having their loans or bursaries cancelled.  

With this debt comes another burden, unemployment. “We have around 67 000 unemployed graduates around the country,” says Kudzai Sibanda, SRC President. Referring to a research conducted by the City of Windhoek, revealing 1 731 registered businesses and in 2006 a total of 4 001 candidates graduating from Unam.  “If each business could employ ten people minimum, bearing in mind that this list has grown, there would have been 17 310 jobs available for these graduates,” says Sibanda. “As the student president, I am here to tell you we’ve been working hard, we are working hard,” assures Sibanda, adding that through the strength they (SRC) have inherited and the wisdom taught, they are able to acknowledge when they need assistance. “We need help,” pleads 
Sibanda.