WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM
The senate of the University of South Africa on Tuesday voted to suspend university management under rector Professor Marinus Wiechers and to set up an interim management board to run the university. In order for the proposal to become reality, it has still to be passed by the university council, its highest decision-making body.
The decisioon by the senate, which is made up of all the university’s full professors, comes in the wake of allegations of financial mismanagement and calls by university staff associations for Wiechers’s resignation.
Nuisa representative Doreen Gough said that the university council’s next scheduled meeting is in june, but that the body may convene sooner to expedite the matter. Gough said the senate’s recommendation did not provide for the appointment of a new principal. “It also set no time frame on how long the interim board should manage the university,” she added.