Andy Duffy, is truly muddle-headed. In his article “UWC debt collector’s deal”(February 13 to 19) he gets his story wrong in so many areas that I must wonder about his competence.
Now for the facts: Professor Ikey van de Rheede was appointed as vice-rector (student affairs) by the broad-based process which the university adopted in 1995 for all senior appointments.
This process includes the university council, thus decisions made in the process are binding on all stakeholders.
Hence, when all the stakeholders, with one abstention, voted for Van de Rheede’s appointment with an unprecedented one-year probationary clause, the university council, although generally unhappy with the probationary clause, found it difficult to reject the process. The council has since indicated to the university community that, in future, it will not accede to such requests from appointment committees.
For many years now, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and most historically disadvantaged universities, the collection of student fees has been a difficult matter.
Universities are not in general organised to go after debtor-students in the way debt- collection agencies and banks are able to.
At UWC, we have followed both the regular way of pursuing debtors and we have engaged in regular telephone interaction with parents or guardians to pay the fees of students.
These methods, unfortunately, have not reaped the results we expected. Hence, we shall be the first university in South Africa that will have a fully functioning debt-collection unit to pursue those who owe us money.
It is sheer maliciousness on Duffy’s part to blame individual members of the university management for what is a national problem created by the dismal economic conditions of the past.
Furthermore, our success in collecting student fees by November 1997 was only slightly worse than in 1996 and my internal memorandum to staff aimed to indicate this rather than frighten them.
It is unfortunate that your paper, through the incompetence of Duffy, wishes to create an atmosphere of mistrust and mismanagement on our campus.
Undoubtedly Van de Rheede has his critics. But for a responsible newspaper such as yours to permit a smear campaign to satisfy his faceless critics is unacceptable. – Professor Cecil Abrahams, rector and vice- chancellor, UWC
n Andy Duffy replies: Professor Cecil Abrahams argues that my story was wrong in many areas, but fails to show where. The story recorded that Professor Ikey van de Rheede’s appointment followed a democratic process; that the council wasn’t happy with the probationary clause; and that it has decided not to allow such clauses in future appointments.
Abrahams suggests that debt collection in November 1997 was “only slightly worse” than in 1996. At best, he is being euphemistic. Student debt had more than doubled to R60- million.
Abrahams’s description of his internal memo is similarly mischevious. “UWC does not have cash reserves and we are unable to sustain the kind of debt that was created in 1997,” he told staff in his memo on January 19. “Should students fail to pay off last year’s debt and contribute to the 1998 budget we are faced with closure.”
Finally, the story surrounding Van de Rheede’s appointment was based heavily on what Abrahams told me.
No one can accuse him of being faceless, nor, I’m sure, can he be accused of participating in any smear campaign.