COULD TRANSPORT BE A PROBLEM AT UNAM?

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ach and every Namibian has the right to education. In a country where poverty is rife, parents are making great sacrifices to ensure that their children have a head start through education. One of the greatest achievement is to be accepted at the most prestigious and only University in Namibia. The issue however is the fact that students find themselves stranded without reliable transport from the campus which is located on outskirts south of Windhoek. In the past UNAM had the arrangement where students were dropped at a common and safe location in city centre from where students could have access to taxis. That practice has since been stopped.

In the past few years the four UNAM SRC presidents have raised the issue with the institution’s management, but aside for a survey UNAM conducted, no feedback has yet been given. In the meantime students are subjected to harassment in the form of verbal insults and threats. Adding to this is also the common practice of taxi drivers to refuse to take student passengers to requested routes, thus leaving students stranded at the UNAM gates. Another issue is the safety aspect whereby students are robbed of their possessions and even threatened with physical violence when they take taxis after dark.

For some students like Martha, the issue should enjoy immediate attention. “Last month I was robbed of my cell phone by a taxi driver, but because it was dark I couldn’t get the number plate of the taxi. I was really scared an almost didn’t come to class the next day. I can’t help but wonder what UNAM is going to do about this issue.”

Since then more students have come forth with horror stories of how they had to fend of criminals and would-be sexual predators. This raises the question of how far UNAM is going to go to ensure that it stays the top institution of choice. How important do they view the safety of their students with regard to the lack of reliable and safety transportation?