Peter Dickson
A University of Fort Hare commission of inquiry has found evidence of misconduct by former vice-chancellor Professor Mbulelo Mzamane and his deputy for academic affairs, Professor Ntobeko Maqhashalala.
Acting vice-chancellor Professor Derrick Swartz said this week that the two academics had been suspended by the university and would face disciplinary action.
The move comes nine months after government ordered a probe into alleged financial mismanagement at the cash- strapped Alice university.
The investigation was carried out by former University of Cape Town vice- chancellor Stuart Saunders, who found Fort Hare to be facing a major financial crisis and recommended the option of closing it down should be considered “seriously”.
By this month, despite even the highest government subsidy of all South African universities, the overdraft was expected to be R52-million and topping R71- million by December next year.
Fort Hare is currently negotiating with banks, calling in massive student debts and seeking donations for survival.
Mzamane, Maqhashalala and registrar Dr Isaac Mabindisa, who has since resigned from Fort Hare, agreed to take leave in April while a commission of inquiry considered Saunders’s recommendations.
Mzamane, who intends seeking legal advice, stayed on as a tenured professor in Fort Hare’s department of English studies and comparative literature after his term of office as vice-chancellor ended in August.
Saunders found low staff morale and “a great deal of tension and lack of trust at the university”.
He documented a string of misconduct allegations, including staff members enjoying fully paid sabbatical leave for up to five years, and others from two to three years. The average academic staff member worked a two-and-a-half day week, with some doing nothing at all, while little research took place. Saunders also found “ghost” employees on the payroll.
Saunders reported rumours of murders and assassinations on campus that had caused “a great deal of insecurity” at great financial cost.
The entire administration block was surrounded by razor wire and private security guards were hired after 938 redundant workers – there were at least five cleaners to every student – were retrenched in 1997.
Mabindisa, receiving “security comparable to a head of state”, had been protected from that time while travelling between home and campus and Mzamane had a guard on duty at his home at night.