Tsumeb
The Managing Director of the Hangala Group, Dr Leake Hangala, recently announced that Tsumeb would soon become a university town.
Hangala made the announcement in Tsumeb over the weekend. “I’ve been passionately associated with the initiative for the establishment of the Tsumeb University of Science and Technology to nurture the coming generations of skilled, confident, and adaptable workers, innovators and entrepreneurs that Namibia needs,” he said.
Ongoing consultations between Tsumeb Town Council, the Hangala Group and other key stakeholders have reached an advanced stage, he said. Hangala noted that the vision of setting up a university at Tsumeb sprouted many years ago and following fruitful deliberations between the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Tsumeb Town Council, 20 hectares of land were donated for the new campus.
“I commend the town council and its management for spearheading this initiative and, especially, for donating 20 hectares of land on which the campus will be built. In this spirit of partnership my company, the Hangala Group, fully commits itself to this initiative,” Hangala said.
“We do this in the hope that others in the private sector will be inspired to do the same and make their contribution to ensure the realisation of this university,” said Hangala, who previously held the post of managing director at NamPower.
Hangala further noted that a steering committee is being established in full consultation with all relevant roleplayers, including the Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation. The latter will conduct a feasibility study to define the parameters of the proposed university.
He said once the specifications and framework have been set, outreach partners can begin to be consulted in earnest, including local and international funding institutions, as well as forming partnerships with universities globally to provide support in the infant stages of the planned university.
Hangala dismissed criticisms that the project may be too big for the available student market, saying: “Tsumeb must not think small.”
“I know what the sceptics will say, ‘Your aims are too large. Your town is too small. Your existing tertiary institutions are enough and the nation’s resources too little.’ To them I say there can never be too many centres of excellence.
“Namibia must not think small. Tsumeb must not think small. Had the founding generations of Namibians that passed through this town in the 1960s and 1970s thought small, had they heeded the sceptics of their time, they would never have gone on to bend the arc of history toward freedom,” Hangala argued.