Justin Pearce
The self-appointed management team of Vista University — led by Armscor director Leon Bartell — is accused of stashing millions of rands of university funds to be used in case some of its staff are “chased off” campus.
The university, originally the brainchild of Dr Andries Treurnicht, is now battling to transform itself into the “RDP University” which it claims to be. But Vista, with 30 000 students spread across seven campuses in townships throughout the country, is ruled directly by a subcommittee of the discredited university council which is widely accused of standing in the way of change. Even Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu is suspected of acting in bad faith and colluding with the
Allegations that Vista University’s outgoing council has paid R90-million into pension funds to ensure a happy retirement for present staff members have cast a shadow on the university’s already troubled progress towards transformation.
American academic Professor Charles Sugnet claims that Vista council chairman Bartell told him of the payments during an interview during March this year while Sugnet was in South Africa on a study visit. According to Sugnet, Bartell told him of a payment of R50-million to augment the staff retirement fund, and a further R40- million into a special “early retirement fund”. Sugnet recalls Bartell saying: “I have put the money where the new people won’t be able to get it.”
Sugnet also says Bartell told him of R400-million stashed in the bank by Vista — a university where the students struggle to pay fees, and suffer from academic staff shortages and understocked libraries.
Bartell was not available for comment, and the Mail & Guardian’s enquiries were referred to council member Allan Tonkin.
Tonkin said he was not aware of R400-million in the bank — though he said that the university was “in a better financial state than other institutions because of good financial management”.
On the subject of the pension fund payments, Tonkin was unable to give figures, but he confirmed that two payments were to be made.
The first such payment resulted from Vista withdrawing from the government’s Associated Institutions Pension Fund, which services educational institutions. In terms of this arrangement, government transferred part (about 60 percent) of Vista’s pension money into a private university pension, but it is up to the university to make up the shortfall.
The second payment, Tonkin said, was into a fund set up because “staff needed to be protected in case they are chased off campus” — an eventuality which Tonkin described as “the downside of being in a disadvantaged
The allegations concerning the funds have provoked fears that the outgoing council is using much-needed university funds to feather the nests of staff who were appointed by the old regime and who are planning to retire under the new.
Vista’s history of Broederbond interference is well known. The university was set up by then Minister of Education and Training Dr Andries Treurnicht as a National Party response to attempts by the University of the Witwatersrand to establish a Soweto satellite campus. While Broederbond influence may have waned at executive level, there are still large numbers of academic staff surviving from apartheid days who may well be reconsidering their position when faced with a new regime.