Africa-Press – Namibia. A SECOND-year education student at the University of Namibia Oshakati Campus might have to drop out next year, as she cannot afford to settle her 2020 tuition fees.
Dortea Iipumbu (30) says of the N$28 000 total tuition fees for the current academic year, she only managed to pay N$10 000. According to her statement from the university, Iipumbu still owes N$18 500 that she should settle before the 2021 academic year starts. She also needs to clear the arrears by end of next week to access her October/November exam results. Iipumbu told The Namibian that she raised the money she paid so far from doing people’s nails. She said she makes N$200 or less per day, which she also uses to buy food, groceries and pay rent of N$500 per month. Iipumbu, who is an orphan, said there is no one to support her because her cousin, who has been helping her since she was young also has children in high school. Although her cousin still assists her financially, she cannot pay N$18 500 because she (cousin) has a house and children. She said she was unable to get a student loan from the Namibia Student Financial Assistance Funds, because she does not have her mother’s documents. “The only document that I have of my mother is a repatriation form issued to her when she left Angola,” she said. She says she has failed to get her mother’s death certificate or any other document because she does not know her maternal family. She also says she sought financial assistance from the ministry of defence and veterans’affairs as both her parents were war veterans, but she did not get any help. “I was raised by my grandmother, Dortea Ndemutila Nikole, who took me from my father’s house when I was six months old. She raised me well and before she died in 1996, she told her children to take care of me,” she said. Iipumbu said when her cousin got married in 2005, she moved with her to Uukwangula village where she still lives with her. “I have never seen my mother. However, in 2016, I learnt that she died in 1997 and she is buried in Angola,” she said, adding that her father, Kornelius Iipumbu, known by his combat name Fuma ya Fuma, died in 1995.Iipumbu added, “I don’t know where she is buried. I did not attend her funeral,” Iipumbu said, wiping off tears with a handkerchief. She said for years she has been looking for her mother’s family to no avail. “I heard they are from Okongo in Ohangwena region. I [eventually] met a family member in 2016 in Windhoek, unfortunately she died,” she said. Iipumbu said she also met her biological sister Fiina Iipumbu for the first time in 2016. The two met after a woman from her village, who got married at the village where her sister was staying with another family member, linked them up. She said her sister also does not know their maternal family. A letter from Oshakati East constituency councillor Abner Shikongo confirms that Iipumbu is an orphan and no one in her family can afford to pay for her studies. “It’s, therefore, against this background that she is looking for a good Samaritan who can assist funding her study,” Shikongo wrote in a letter dated 7 December 2020.
