Kandjii-Murangi faces the boot

The Presidency yesterday said the president will sack higher education, training and innovation minister Itah Kandjii-Murangi if the allegations of misconduct, including claiming close to N$1,5 million from three institutions under her ministry, are substantive.

This comes after Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader Job Amupanda posted several accusations on social media claiming that Kandjii-Murangi has been pocketing subsistence and travel allowances claimed from the Namibian University of Science and Technology (Nust), the University of Namibia (Unam), the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

President Hage Geingob’s press secretary, Alfredo Hengari, said Geingob will act if the accusations are proven.

“If they are substantive, there is an Anti-Corruption Commission which can step in. At that point the appointing authority, the president, steps in to either remove a minister, as was done with two other ministers. You will recall that it is the first case of its kind in Africa, if not the world,” Hengari said.

In his multiple social media posts, Amupanda accused the minister of being corrupt and of unduly claiming more than N$140 000 from Nust, approximately N$400 000 from Unesco’s Namibian office, and N$300 000 from the NTA.

Amupanda also accused the minister of ignoring a court order that allegedly compelled her to pay close to N$4 million she reportedly owes the Development Bank of Namibia.

Kandjii-Murangi did not respond to detailed questions sent to her yesterday morning. However, when The Namibian contacted her in the afternoon, she said she was “in the middle of something” and asked if she could come back to the media outlet later, however, she had not replied by the time of going to print.

CONFIRMED

Nust spokesperson John Haufiku yesterday confirmed that the university received a request from the ministry on 5 July 2022 to pay for the minister’s travelling expenses.

He said the request was approved by Nust management and N$140 600 was paid to the minister on 3 February 2023.

He said the money was paid after Nust received a communique from the executive director of the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, Alfred van Kent, requesting the institution to pay the minister’s subsistence allowance for an official higher education trip to Korea.

“The ministry was not able to virement the required resources on a timely basis, to cover the minister’s travel and, therefore, appealed to the institution to pay the allowance, promising to repay the funds once the ministry was able to do so,” Haufiku said.

“Please note that the vice chancellor, Erold Naomab, was out of office during this transaction, and the rest of the seated management handled this transaction. So, it is untrue that the vice chancellor made this payment,” Haufiku said.

“There is nothing unusual about this transaction, it was a government entity in the same ministry helping the government office that funds it to conduct higher education affairs.”

Unam spokesperson Simon Namesho was not available for comment.