Stellenbosch University `top-bestuur’ faces revolt over secret pay-outs and management style. Marion Edmunds reports
THE administration at Stellenbosch University, bastion of Afrikaner education, is facing a rebellion from its academics and students over its management style and secret pay-outs to five senior staff.
It also emerged this week that the university has been fined R90 000 by the Receiver of Revenue after failing to deduct tax from the pay-outs.
Rector Professor Andreas van Wyk called management, academics and students to a meeting on Friday following a private and reportedly bitter discussion with the dean of the law faculty, Professor James Fourie.
A number of highly-respected academics say they will back Fourie against the rector. Many of the academics are critical of the manner in which the “top-bestuur” manage the university .
This week the university’s student newspaper, Die Matie, really let rip with an article entitled “Battle lines drawn in money war”, and a scathing editorial.
The Mail & Guardian revealed in December how two vice-rectors, Christo Viljoen and Walter Claassen, director of finance Nico Basson, personnel director Kobus van Wyk and the head of student affairs, Flip de Wet, all received cheques ranging in value between R130 000 and R200 000.
The cheques were personally authorised by Van Wyk, who attempted to keep them secret, and initially tax was not deducted. The university is now paying a penalty for this oversight of R45 000, as well as R45 000 to cover interest on the arrears.
When the story broke, the university council chairman Gys Steyn said the pay- outs were in lieu of sabbatical leave which the five men were unable to take, such was their commitment to the running of the university.
He said the pay-outs had been sanctioned by a university council committee that had kept no minutes of that particular meeting.
However, the answers failed to satisfy members of the senate and academic staff, who believe the rector and the five changed university policy strictly for their own benefit.
They believe the saga is jeopardising the university’s future as an Afrikaans- language university in the new South Africa.
The Mail & Guardian has documentary evidence that Steyn instructed auditors Coopers and Lybrand to check the legality of the payments months after they were made.
In a letter to Steyn, Coopers and Lybrand indicated that the period of leave, allegedly cashed in for these payments, had not been marked off on individual leave cards, and this should be amended immediately. The auditors have recommended the university deduct the tax.
The meeting on Friday is expected to be a showdown between those who want to challenge Van Wyk’s leadership and the manner in which he deals with staff and student problems, and those in top administrative positions, wanting to protect their positions and status.
Former employees of the university have indicated that Claassen and Viljoen are temperamental. Some students who have angered Van Wyk by publicly criticising the university say the same about him.
Van Wyk has ties with many powerful political and financial figures in the Afrikaner community.
He has built a reputation as a staunch defender of the Afrikaans language.
Van Wyk has indicated that he wishes to protect the Afrikaans character of the university in the face of government attempts to introduce bilingualism on to campus to make it more accessible to black and coloured students.
His ability to do this is now being questioned by some of the best minds on campus.