‘You can’t bribe with a bursary’ – Mbumba

THREE Cabinet ministers yesterday called a press conference in an attempt to exonerate the Ministry of Education from any wrongdoing in the Chinese scholarships saga.

Education Minister Nangolo Mbumba, flanked by Presidential Affairs Minister Albert Kawana and Information Minister Joel Kaapanda, said his ministry could only take responsibility for the ten bursaries it had awarded. He said the print media were falsely insinuating that high-ranking Government officials had snatched these bursaries at the expense of the children of the poor. Media reports recently revealed that the children of high-ranking Government and Swapo officials had received bursaries to study in China – in addition to those bursaries allocated by the Ministry of Education.Despite several media reports on this issue, there is still no clarity as to how many of these have been awarded over the years and the basis on which they were allocated. The Education Ministry was this year given 10 bursaries and, repeating his Permanent Secretary’s earlier words, Mbumba said these were awarded transparently. The controversial bursaries for the elite were not awarded by his Ministry.The public outcry is not about the Ministry bursaries, but instead about how children of the elite got scholarships to study in China.Neither the Education Ministry nor the Chinese embassy has been able to explain how these scholarships were awarded. Mbumba said he could not speak on behalf of the Chinese government, and neither could he force the Chinese embassy to say how exactly these bursaries were awarded.’You cannot bribe someone with a bursary,’ Mbumba said when asked why it was mostly the children of Government elite whose children had benefited.While distancing the Ministry from the controversy, however, Mbumba defended his Cabinet colleagues and senior government officials, saying that there has ‘never been undue influence or requests made by the parents to those countries or its officials to offer scholarships as alleged’.He therefore labelled media reports on the issue ‘sensational’ and calculated attempts aimed at misleading the nation. But he could not explain how these children had accessed the bursaries. He also came out in defence of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, stating that the latter’s daughter ‘applied for the scholarship in her own right and only notified the parents afterwards’.Apart from the President’s daughter, Ndapanda, Defence Minister Charles Namoloh’s son Justus, Ernesto Ndeitunga, son of Namibian Police Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga, and Phillip Esau, son of Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Bernhardt Esau, are listed as some of the beneficiaries of the controversial scholarships.Other notable recipients include Lenna ya Kasita, Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement Henock ya Kasita’s daughter, Naukalemo Nghimtina, Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina’s daughter, and Patrick Lungameni Mushimba, who is said to be related to former First Lady Kovambo Nujoma. The weekly tabloid Informanté reported that Minister of Justice Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana’s daughter, Pendukeni, and Nathanael Pashto Nghidinwa, son of Minister of Home Affairs Rosalia Nghidinwa, also benefited.The scholarships saga has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and even the Namibia National Student’s Organisation (Nanso). The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) was the last to publicly question the way in which the bursaries were awarded. In a statement published on the SPYL website, Secretary Elijah Ngurare asked whether there were strings attached to the awarding of these scholarships in exchange for ‘say current or future favours by our Government to the Chinese government considering that the beneficiaries are individuals in positions that have a material bearing on decisions for tenders/contracts potentially to be awarded favourably to the Chinese companies?’