Students have accused the Community Skills Development Centre (Cosdec), at Tsumeb, and Rundu, of financial mismanagement.
Tsumeb Centre is accused of withholding student non-tuition fees. This amounts to N$6500 for second-year trainees in 2021.
Vivian Simon is one of the Tsumeb trainees who was affected by the centre’s Tsumeb funding. He claims that the money was originally supposed to be paid by 29/04, but the centre failed to pay.
“They went quiet until one of us sent them an email to request payment. The centre promised that payment would be made on 31 August.
“When that date came, the money was still not paid. They said they were having technical issues,” she says.
A portion of the unpaid amount was finally paid on September 16.
Simon claims that the trainees were paid between N$2 200 to N$2 800.
They inquired about the formula to arrive at this amount and were informed that the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund NSFAF had not paid the full amount for Cosdec tuition fees 2021.
Ntema Sihela (manager of Cosdec Tsumeb) confirmed that the centre will withhold these funds until NSFAF pays the 2022 tuition fee.
“When they came to apply in the second year, they had not paid any tuition fees up to date because NSFAF has not paid for them. The organisation felt that we pay them 50%, and we will pay the remainder when NSFAF pays the money,” Sihela says.
He claims that NSFAF paid only the 2021 tuition fees in September of last year.
Sihela claims that all outstanding fees are registration fees. Trainees have not paid all course fees in 2022.
“If we refund them 100%, by November the centres may not run while we are waiting for the NSFAF money,” he says.
Sihela claims that trainees who received refunds have started to misuse the funds and not buying trade tools.
Kennedy Kandume, acting chief executive officer of NSFAF, says Cosdec shouldn’t withhold refunds.
“They were paid last year and ought to have paid whatever was owed to students last year . . . Those centres are doing things illegally,” he says.
He also denied delays in payments for Cosdec centres.
Kandume states that NSFAF is currently paying intake fees for first-years.
STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE
Students at Cosdec Tukurenu in Rundu protested against financial mismanagement Monday. According to reports, a meeting was held with the centre’s management on 9 August. It was decided that any outstanding money would be paid from that point forward until 9 September.
“This issue took us long to solve, as it was complex . . . to the extent that the centre’s management could not provide tangible feedback,” Mushongo Eustasius says.
Cosdec’s Management referred Nanso, Martin Nandu, to the Community Skills Development Foundation’s (Cosdef), finance manger, who addressed students on the matter.
However, this engagement almost caused chaos due to unreliable and unclear information.
It is believed that Cosdec was under the watchful eye of management from Namibia Community Skills Development Foundation and failed to inform Nanso about any issues that could have prevented the payment of the dues.
This is what prompted students to demonstrate.
Nanso confirmed that NSFAF had paid 2021’s outstanding funds.
Cosdec’s management denied this for a long time, but later admitted that they received the funds and decided to withhold it.
Kafuro, the Centre manager, received the petition of the demonstrating students and assured them that he would respond positively.
Through Nanso, the students have given Cosdec/Cosdef seven working day to address the matter.
Source: namibian
