Kandjii-Murangi digs in over Nust

HIGHER education minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi says she will not allow the Namibia University of Science and Technology Council to re-advertise the vacant post of vice chancellor.

The minister said this to yesterday in response to the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) Council, which plans to defy her directive to halt the re-advertisement for the institution’s vice chancellor position.

“I will not let them go ahead and re-advertise while there are issues that have not been ironed out. Nust has a history of recruitment problems, and my ministry will make sure that does not happen again. We can debate all day about my power to order a re-advertisement,” she told .

The council’s chairperson, Esi Schimming-Chase, said in a letter to Kandjii-Murangi last week that the minister has no mandate or legal power to stop the re-advertisement of a vacant vice chancellor’s post, saying that would be a breach of the Nust Act as well as a violation of Article 18 of the Namibian Constitution.

However, Kandjii-Murangi said the council is accountable to the stakeholder of the university, and in this particular case the government, which she represents.

“If anything happens after the council appoints the vice chancellor without consulting all affected stakeholders, I will be held accountable. It is my ministry which has to answer, while the council members will be gone in two months,” Kandjii-Murangi stressed.

The minister added that it will be a corporate governance blunder for an outgoing council with only two months left in office to appoint an incoming vice chancellor.

She had thus started the process of recruiting new council members, adding that the ministry will now sort out the re-advertisement for the vice chancellor’s post with the council in coming meetings. Meanwhile, in her letter to the minister last week, Schimming-Chase said the minister wants them to favour a woman for the vice chancellor position, which will be gender discrimination. Kandjii-Murangi refuted the claim by Schimming-Chase that she wants the council to favour a woman, saying that is basically a misquote. She said the government’s gender policies advocate more women’s representation in senior positions in the academia, and that is what she highlighted to the council.

The minister also stood by her call to have the number of years required for the successful candidate to be lowered to seven years, adding that the country cannot use years of experience as a barrier to having competent Namibians hired. “It has been 29 years; we cannot keep saying there is no one competent in our labour market.

When the first vice chancellor took over, he was not experienced, but he learnt on the job and grew Nust. We are not saying compromise the required criteria, but give a chance to potential Namibians to fail in the interview room,” the minister explained. She also questioned why the council wants to hire a foreign recruiting agency, as if the country is that dry of the requisite expertise. However, in their response letter, the council said it was too late to cancel the one-year contract given to Heidrick and Struggles’ executive search firm because this would lead to financial losses by the university.

“It is a pity that the honourable minister has sought not to engage us, in spite of my attempts to secure an appointment with her over the past week,” Schimming-Chase said, adding that she will continue her attempt to discuss the matter with the minister and Nust chancellor Peter Katjivivi.

Morné du Toit has been the university’s acting vice chancellor since April when the long-serving Tjama Tjivikua left.