Students are the same, all over the world. The name of their bane is impatience. When they demand for anything, they do not take no for an answer. That is what the authorities in Namibia are contending with. About 30 student nurses from various institutions have demonstrated at the Head Office of the Health Ministry in Windhoek to impress on the Minister, Bernard Haifiku, to address the issue of nursing jobs.
The nurses, who are from the University of Namibia, International University of Management and Welwitchia University, demonstrated peacefully under the watchful gaze of the police.
Last year, the government announced that most of the student nurses graduating next month would remain jobless because of lack of fund in the public coffers. The group complained that the Health Ministry was discriminating against them by only employing students from government training centers, such as the National Health Training Center, NHTC, who only have diplomas.
The spokesperson for the students, Junias Shilunga, showed the media a letter the students sent to the Health Minister last Monday to notify him of their planned public protest. In the letter, the group stated their intention to hand their petition to the ministry.
The nurses refused to hand over their petition to the Deputy Health Minister, Juliet Kavetuna, because they wanted to deal directly with Dr. Haufiku.
Ms. Shlunga said, “It is an insult to us that they sent her while we asked to speak to Dr. Haifiku”. But the Minister retorted that the protesters should have handed their petition to his Deputy.
The Health Minister explained that he was trying to reorganise the ministry in line with the recommendation of the World Health Organisation on Doctor/Nurse to Patient ratios, and that the proposed restructuring was submitted to the Prime Minister’s office last year. It remains to be seen whether his point would be appreciated by the student nurses.
