WINDHOEK FAITH SANKWASA
A professor at the University of Namibia (Unam) has slammed the minister of health and social services, Dr Richard Kamwi, for allegedly discrediting the university to cover up for his own failures in the public health sector.
Unam's vice-chancellor, Professor Lazarus Hangula, in a statement issued yesterday, said Kamwi has gone on a crusade to discredit the university at every opportunity.
Hangula said Kamwi has been out for revenge after being denied a platform to make a statement during the inauguration of the School of Medicine in 2011.
Hangula claimed that Kamwi has discredited the School of Medicine by attacking the standard of Unam-trained nurses through the media and by spearheading the establishment of a new training institution called Welwitschia University.
For how long will Kamwi be allowed to destroy what the health professionals have built with a lot of dedication and constructive engagement before him? Could it be that Kamwi is using Unam to cover up his own failure in the crippled health system, which has caused many Namibians to lose their lives? I leave it to the public to judge, the statement reads.
According to Hangula, Kamwi tried to convince Unam nursing lecturers and ministry staff to join Welwitschia University.
Hangula said the new institution is using a curriculum copied from that of Unam, adding that Kamwi is in serious conflict of interest because he was involved in the development planning of Welwitschia.
Hangula further questioned why Kamwi negotiated the establishment of the university with Unam staff but never discussed how better to accommodate the clinical training contract hours of trainee nurses in State hospitals with the very same staff.
It appears in such logic that those individuals were not good enough when they were serving at Unam but would become good after draining the public institutions to benefit private institutions.
It is the very same ministry which has told Unam that the current situation at public hospitals does not allow Unam to admit more trainee nurses and doctors because of challenges related to clinical training and limited capacity of public hospitals.
Yet Kamwi is offering the same hospitals which have inadequate facilities to the private university to make use of them, Hangula stated.