3rd Edition 2009 - University of Namibia

2 BLA Campus BLA BLA News Exero Edition 01, 55553
ErIUSTIO
Vote of no confidence!
- Freeman Ngulu
Andreas Shifotoka claims to lead a movement
of students who are calling for a vote
of no confidence towards both the SRC for
Recreation and SRC for Culture. The ‘one
man movement’ as it is called by the SRC
Vice-President Nicky Mutenda, is considered
by him as nothing but a smear campaign
driven by his (Shifotoka’s) ambition
to run for office in the Student Representative
Council .
Shifotoka claims that with regard to SRC
of Recreation, he has been deemed incompetent
in fulfilling his mandate and thus
certain procedures need to be followed as
per constitution. Andreas Shifotoka made it
clear that students can take action against
this SRC who has failed to deliver. The SRC
for recreation has apparently only fulfilled
a sequence of 6 events within 196 school
days compared to the previous SRC with
100 events in the same time frame. Shifotoka
also claims that this left Recreation,
Paulus Andreki, with little duty on most, if
not all of these events which took place in
accordance with other SRC departments.
He claims that SRC Recreation only catered
for two groups of students; the drinkers,
which in his opinion “the recent survey
pool by the UDEBSO found drinkers as the
minority on this campus” and with sports
being the other need that was catered for.
The SRC Vice President (VP) refuted these
claims and said that the claims do not hold
any substance, “no SRC department carries
out an event on its own and as a council
we work together”. On the issue of events,
the VP claims that certainly more than 6
events were organized and that Society
Chairpersons can confirm that.
Andreas Shifotoka’s ‘movement’ is said
to be gaining steam as they try to sign a
petition of 10% of the student population,
which would equal a 1000 signatures. He
says that he has no doubt that they will
exceed their target, and actually double
the required number. Until this has been
done their upheaval would have been
in vain as stated in the constitution. The
groups of students are also asking for; a
vote of no confidence in the case of SRC
for Recreation, no rebate and no recommendation
from the University. He gave
the example of the inter-block tournament
which was supposed to be held in April
Nicky Mutenda, SRC- Vice President
but happened 7 months down the
line. These claims were further refuted
by the VP and again he stated that he
believes Andreas is motivated by his
ambitions to run for office and he must
prove him wrong by not running for office.
He argues that the complaints were
to be submitted to his office and not at
the General Student Assembly, because
‘that was making a mountain out of an
anthill bacause he is hungry for power’.
With regard to the petition, which the
VP does not believe will be achieved, it
would have to be tabled in the student
parliament and if they decide whether
the allegations hold any water and then
a vote of no confidence is decided in the
GSA. Andreas Shifotoka claims that no
other SRC member came to the defense
of SRC for Recreation (Paulus Andreki)
during the 2nd semester GSA and that
alone speaks volumes. He also calls for a
public apology by the SRC Vice President
after a verbal exchange with him where
Nicky Mutenda said “you’re a boy, you do
not have anything, you will not go far with
this, we are the ones with power not you”.
The VP does not shy away from the fact
that he did say this and feels that he does
not owe Shifotoka a public apology, because
the words were not said publicly and
even in the case of a private apology he
would rather withdraw some of his inappropriate
statements.
Another issue Shifotoka brought up
was that of the cultural festival theme
which he thought was discriminatory of
international students, the VP is apparently
commented on this by saying that
the international students are nothing
and UNAM is for Namibians’ first and if they
have a problem they should lobby it in their
own countries and that Andreas Shifotoka is
discriminating against Namibians. It is with
these statements that he asks for a public
apology. When asked for comment, SRC-
Vice President refuted the allegations by
saying “the theme was submitted by an
international student who won N$500.00,
if Shifotoka is so concerned by the theme
why didn’t he submit a theme for the festival
theme competition? He should not be a self
appointed Leader of International students
they have voted for us as their leaders not
him.” In his final remarks he states that their
intent is not to create havock but rather to
stop blaming management for problems
when our own system is showing incompetency,
and that the structures put in place to
be followed.
Ed i t o r i a l
The closer we get to the end of the year the more challenges we seem to face, but we have also become more
determined to finish what we started. I personally am disturbed by the events that have presented themselves over
the past semester such as the inability to get too much done, because of a number of challenges. This issue is the
first edition of the two issues planned for this semester and just a step closer to attaining what we want to achieve.
It amazes me when people expect you to conjure up a great edition that is supposed to make both students and
management happy, when they do not want to buy equipment. They buy you one camera when you have
a big team of reporters who all have different stories to report on, sometimes at the same time. The paper is
expected to run without a single computer. For two years it has been said ‘next year’, but next year never comes.
One needs a whole lot of strength and strong will to deal with all the politics that surrounds the student council.
Many people have criticised us for not doing a good job but I would like to see how far they get running this
paper. The dirt has been hidden for too long and painting a pretty picture has done nothing but hide all the
muck that we have allowed to settle. It’s about time that the lies are exposed and the students are told the truth
about what is going on around them. You have the right to know what is going on around you and fight to get
back what is yours.This issue is the beginning of a lot of things to be uncovered.
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Printers
Graphics and Layout
Sebastian Manuel
Campus News will be going out with a big bang, so watch this space for so much more.
Editor-In- Chief
Matilda Shiweda
Diana Amunyela