RUNDU - The President of the Polytechnic Student Representative Council (SRC), Gustav Mbeha, has denied media reports of academic fraud and sexual relationships between students and lecturers.

According to Mbeha, the reports do not take into account the many students who work hard to achieve good results.

“If there are students at the Polytechnic that take part in such practices, they are minimal compared to the multitudes that do not engage in academic corruption,” he charged.

The reports also claimed that last year, one of the lecturers at the institution, Joseph Madhimba, was suspended for engaging in sexual relationships with students.

An irate Mbeha told New Era that Madhimba’s suspension had nothing to do with relationships with students.
With the institution having conferred close to 1,000 different qualifications at its graduation ceremony held in April, should the sex for marks allegations hold any truth the academic achievements of the institution could be seriously jeopardized.

“The students that wrote exams last year despite not having qualified was as a result of suspected irregularities in the assessment of the students – the only reason the students were allowed to write was for the investigations to take place,” said the SRC president.

“The Polytechnic of Namibia prides itself in academic excellence and as the SRC president I admit that there are some flaws in the system. The Students Representative Council stands to fight these flaws daily,” Mbeha charged.

The higher education system shockingly learned through the media last week that a government-sanctioned investigation at the Polytechnic of Namibia had confirmed incidents of academic fraud and a string of sexual relationships between students and lecturers.

The probe also recommended that a forensic audit be instituted into the institution’s spending priorities with a view to determine if it conforms to the State-Owned Enterprises Act.