Snubbed students could sue: LAC

THE dust around the controversial Chinese bursaries is refusing to settle as public reaction continues to come in thick and fast.
In a statement yesterday the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) suggested that students may have a recourse to the law.

The debate was triggered by recent media reports which revealed that the children of high-ranking Government officials had received scholarships to study in China.The debate mostly centres around whether that constitutes corruption. ‘Frankly, any of the deserving poor students, whose applications for scholarships were rejected by Government, would be able to mount a successful challenge in the courts on the constitutionality of the decisions to award the scholarships to students whose parents are in a favourable financial position to pay for the studies,’ LAC Director Norman Tjombe said yesterday.He added that Government’s explanations so far ‘did not add up’.’There are tens of thousands of deserving, young, poor students who are now without education, and children of the relatively affluent, who would otherwise be able to pay for the education of their children, have deprived such poor children of the possibility of furthering their education, and condemned them to the never-ending cycle of poverty, illiteracy, lack of education and joblessness,’ Tjombe added.Meanwhile, both the Congress of Democrats (CoD) and the Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) have added their voices to the protest. PSUN Secretary General Victor Kazonyati described the situation as despicable. The CoD said the reason why these children were beneficiaries is because their parents or guardians are ‘chieftains of Government’ who are in a position to extend reciprocal favours to Chinese government leaders and nationals. CoD Secretary General Tsudao Gurirab said these bursaries are ‘clearly bribes greedily accepted in return for favours to be done or already done at the expense of Namibia’s poor’. He added that this could be the reason why Namibian companies and contractors are being squeezed out by Chinese businesses which are prepared to ‘grease the hands of our greedy and corruptible leaders’.tileni@namibian.com.na