The University of Cape Town (UCT) council has received a new complaint against embattled vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng from suspended executive director for communication and marketing Gerda Kruger.
Getting rid of the embattled University of Cape Town vice-chancellor, Mamokgethi Phakeng, who was given a new five-year contract six months ago, could cost the university R27-million in severance pay.
Phakeng returned to Cape Town this week, cutting short her sabbatical in Britain and Europe, amid a growing crisis of governance, racism allegations and mounting opposition to her leadership at a divided UCT campus.
The mathematics professor has walked into a cauldron, with tension brewing openly as her opponents threaten legal action and questions float about what it would cost to depose her.
Phakeng has been accused of flouting the governance process, along with council chair Babalwa Ngonyama. This particularly revolves around the May departure of associate Lis Lange, who was the deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning.
The circumstances surrounding Lange’s exit were heavily contested across racial lines before the university senate and council and brought back into the spotlight the bullying claims made in a report by former ombud Zetu Makamandela-Mguqulwa in 2019.
On 31 March, Phakeng was given a second five-year term, rewarded for steering the university through challenging times, including the Covid-19 pandemic and launching the innovative online school and UCT Digital Bootcamp.
Among the top-earning vice-chancellors in the country Phakeng, who succeeded Max Price in July 2018, receives a salary of R3.75-million, with housing and car allowances amounting to R1.2-million, and a R395 000 bonus, taking her yearly package to R5.4-million, according to last year’s annual report.
In terms of labour law, Phakeng, would have a strong case for a payout equal to the duration of her contract, should her detractors, including former acting second-in-command, deputy vice-chancellor: research and internationalisation, Sue Harrison, succeed in ousting her.
‘No plans to resign’
Phakeng said this week: “I have no plans to resign.”
Harrison was accused of “leading a coup” and “stabbing her boss in the back” during the 30 September senate meeting where procedural governance was flouted. Harrison allegedly broke protocol by allowing the details concerning the departure of Lange, which ought to have been tabled seven days before, to be presented to the senate.
“With the doubling of people against the vice-chancellor at council and the latest salvo from the academic union, there are clear indicators that Phakeng is fighting for survival,” said a former UCT academic who declined to be named.
Although he does not interfere directly in tertiary matters, unless they reach a crisis point, Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande would not endorse such a decision, an education department official said. The minister has asked the council for a report on the goings-on.
Phakeng was reappointed after extensive consultation by the council with the students’ representative council, staff bodies, organised labour, deans and the executive directors. Ironically, a vital requirement of the UCT statute and the policy for re-appointing a vice-chancellor is receiving the backing of the 400-member senate. Phakeng got 78% of the vote but part of the senate has turned against her.
As the race-tinged crisis at UCT brewed, black academics, speaking to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity, said they were being marginalised and were constantly under siege from their white counterparts. They said this had manifested itself in damning statistics over the past two years showing black African academics and staff were more likely to face disciplinary action than their white colleagues.
‘Black staff persecuted’
Some critics have accused Phakeng of playing the race card to mask her failings but statistics since the beginning of the year show out of the 79 disciplinary matters involving UCT staff members who have come before human resources, 41 have involved black African staff, while only two were white.
Last year, out of the 67 disciplinary matters, 31 involved black Africans while five involved white people. The remainder comprised coloured and Indian or foreign staff members.
“There are different consequences for black Africans and whites on campus,” commented a long-serving UCT academic who did not wish to be named, saying they had seen how people had been ostracised because of race.
Another academic told the story of an African academic who, despite being acquitted of sexual harassment accusations, was still allegedly hounded out of the institution. A white professor charged with child pornography faced no repercussions or investigation after he claimed that his phone had been hacked.
“Consequences at UCT are not meant to be for white people. Consequences are meant to be for black people. This is the inequality reality that we face at UCT,” said another academic.
A member of the Black Academic Caucus, Sabelo Radebe, said it was involved in meetings over the crisis.
“We have a historical background of the issues within untransformed governance structures, especially in the senate and academic union. These structures breed racialised attitudes and undermine black leadership,” Radebe said.
Crunch meeting
The 28-member UCT council was preparing for a meeting on Friday to discuss the way forward.
“Phakeng and Ngonyama are in hot water because the old guard doesn’t want to see old people (like Lange) make way for young black talent. But, amazingly, some new senior white appointments have accepted jobs with the proviso that they mentor and groom their successor; this is refreshingly different and is happening,” said an academic.
A 2021 transformation report, which has not yet been released but was approved by the council in June, says racism is rife at UCT. The report paints a gloomy picture of division on campus, saying there are no mechanisms for meaningful recourse.
But despite its ongoing troubles, UCT confounded critics by retaining its Times Higher Education ranking as the best university in Africa. In all five major international university rankings, UCT is rated the best in Africa. When Phakeng became vice-chancellor on 1 July 2018, it led the way in Africa in only one ranking.
Although the departure of Lange in May sparked the current tensions, matters have been on the boil for a while as Phakeng drove a more robust transformation agenda which led to widespread unhappiness on campus. This followed criticism by black academics that she had been slow to transform UCT.
The Black Academic Caucus says the widely reported controversy arising from the 30 September senate meeting and the subsequent fallout between the senate and council highlights the struggle to transform senior governance structures at UCT.
The caucus noted there was a difference between Lange’s stated reasons for leaving UCT and what had been communicated to the senate by Phakeng and Ngonyama, raising questions about accountability.
It said it favoured an investigation into issues affecting the university’s governance and expressed its concern about what it called the toxic environment for black leaders in higher academic institutions.
The caucus also said it was worried about the composition of the university’s senate, which was dominated by white men.
Besides highlighting the tension at the top level, the transformation report says some staff members and students do not see themselves represented in the structures and cultures of the university.
Deputy vice-chancellor for transformation Elelwani Ramugondo said in a leaked letter to the council she was shocked to find how “racialised white people continue to have their voices amplified while black people, especially Africans, have their voices diminished at UCT”.
In a statement, Ngonyama said the past few weeks had been challenging for the university but called for calm.
The M&G approached Lange and Harrison for comment, but they had not responded by the time of writing. — © Higher Education Media Services
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