recommendation
Battling reduced budgets, several universities are now also embroiled in rows over staff selection and payments
Andy Duffy
THE University of Venda has quashed a report by independent consultants which recommends hefty salary increases for staff.
The university’s council, which commissioned the report from respected Pretoria human resources consultant FSA-Contact, refused last week to accept the findings until FSA reworked the report and explained its conclusions. Staff had received an 18% salary increase before the report was handed in.
Deputy vice-chancellor Ndoro Vera says Venda is also withholding its R100 000 payment for the report pending the rework, and even then payment may be a “contentious issue”.
FSA, which has undertaken similar work for other universities, declined to be drawn on Venda’s reaction to the report.
But the consultant responsible, Johann Naude, says he employed the same methodology at Venda that FSA uses for other clients. “This is between us and the university,” he adds.
The report has been kept under wraps, but council sources say it runs to 12 pages, naming various staff members, their job specifications and their salary packages.
It concludes that many employees’ responsibilities are below those specified by their job titles but also recommends large salary increases.
It suggests vice-chancellor Gessler Nkondo should receive a basic salary of about R630000 – more than 30% above his current total package. The report says his salary range should be between R480 000 and R780 000. The latter figure is significantly above salary levels at other universities, according to council sources.
The report, commissioned by the council, forms part of a staff evaluation and reorganisation planned at Venda. The administration’s refusal to release FSA’s findings helped prompt industrial action among non-academic staff earlier this month.
“Some consultants produce good reports and some do not, and if you are not careful you can accept a report which can put an institution in jeopardy,” Vera says.
“We could not accept the report … it creates false hopes in terms of salaries. This university is not heavily endowed.”
Vera says FSA spoke to less than 50 staff in compiling the report, and senior management were not contacted. Staff have been brought into the reworking process – a decision which helped end the industrial action. The report is due to be considered by a special council meeting on December10.
Meanwhile, the education ministry said this week it was still seeking Nkondo’s response to mismanagement allegations made by staff associations last week. A ministry representative said the issue had been handed to education director general Dr Chabani Manganyi for further investigation.
In a paid advertisement in this week’s Mail & Guardian, however, the university says the staff associations’ allegations had been withdrawn.
The university says it is also co-operating with the public protector’s investigations into other allegations. These centre on a credit card issued to Nkondo, with a credit limit of R150 000.
@Rules changed to give staff huge payouts
Not taking their sabbatical leave proved highly profitable for four Stellenbosch University staff members, writes Marion Edmunds
THE Christmas mood at Stellenbosch University has been soured by revelations that four top administrative staff have been paid cheques of up to R200 000 each – after the university council changed the rules to make the payments possible.
The payments were made to them in lieu of extended sabbatical leave.
Student leaders, lecturers and council members say they are shocked at what is seen by many as irregular payouts at a time when the university faces major cutbacks which will lead to staff retrenchments, lower salaries for academics and fewer resources.
Sources close to the rector’s office said four cheques were issued in about March this year. The two vice-rectors, Professor Christo Viljoen and Professor Walter Claassen, are said to have received R200 000 each. The dean of student affairs, Flip de Wet, and the director of finances and services, Nico Basson, are said to have received R150 000 each.
The rector, Professor Andreas van Wyk, authorised the cheques after administrative staff raised objections to issuing them.
Questions directed to the rector were answered by new university council chairman Gys Steyn of Rupert International, who said council rules had been changed to ensure “the most effective management of the university. In terms of established policy and personnel rules, academic staff and senior management are entitled to compensation for accumulated unused sabbatical as at date of retirement at the rate of remuneration applicable at time of retirement. Members of senior management are no longer active in their fields of study, but had to take long leave as the only way they could take advantage of this benefit.
“The remuneration committee of the university council consequently earlier this year resolved that senior management be offered the option of being paid out the value of accumulated unused leave at current salary levels. Senior management is now no longer compelled to take untimely extended leave at times when their services may be most needed for the effective management of the university,” he said.
Steyn refused to confirm who had received how much, saying the number of people who had benefited from the scheme was confidential. He also denied the payments were bonuses.
It is not known whether academic staff, particularly those close to retirement, are able to benefit from the new rules, particularly as an early payout would save tax for recipients.
The Mail & Guardian has learnt that efforts to put the payments on the senate’s agenda were foiled by the administration. The issue was not appropriate for discussion by the senate, said Steyn. The dean of law, Professor James Fourie, is said to have tried to persuade the rector to reverse the payments, but to no avail. Fourie refused to comment this week.
Administrative staff at the University of Cape Town, by way of contrast, do not get study leave save for the university’s three chief executive officers. According to director of public affairs Helen Zille, the chief executives can accumulate up to 16 months’ sabbatical, but can only be paid out for four-and-a-half months and only after retirement. Zille said sabbatical could only be used for study and travel relevant to the university and their portfolios or to their discipline. It could not be used for any other purpose.
Viljoen is one of South Africa’s more prosperous academics and has had several well-placed and paid public posts outside the university. He is a former chairman of the SABC and did the job while operating out of Stellenbosch. He was appointed as a councillor to the Independent Broadcasting Authority but his handsome salary was stopped after he repeatedly failed to attend meetings.
A Stellenbosch University lecturer, who did not want to be named, said this week: “It’s absolutely disgusting. Sabbatical or study leave is meant to be an opportunity for an academic to go to an institution or do research to better him or herself academically. One questions whether the administrative staff have the same justification for study leave.
“In terms of the new performance-driven salary package which is being introduced, they have just reduced the average salary in the Arts Faculty by 10% because they did not have enough money.”