Mukoni T Ratshitanga
The University of Zululand – one of the hardest hit by government subsidy cuts and student debt – spent more than R1,7-million on curtains in three years.
However, university representative Carl de Villiers said this week a preliminary report on the linen spending spree “does not show any criminal activity”.
The probe that produced this report appears to have hit rocky ground. Three weeks ago, the university claimed there was no report because “much of the original documentation could not be located”. But then on the same day De Villiers said documents had been found, and the investigation would proceed.
The figure the university says was spent on curtains is R600 000, but this is contradicted by documentary evidence in the Mail & Guardian’s possession showing R1E719 194 was spent between April 1995 and June 1997.
A requisition slip to the university’s purchasing office dated November 1995 asks for authorisation for a packet of penlight batteries. The office issued a payment of R2E193 to Curtain and Fabric Consultants using the same requisition number.
Curtain and Fabric Consultants was the only supplier of curtains to the university.
During 1995, the largest amount paid out by the university was R91E000. The requisition was for R5E000 for the printing of Unicom, an internal student publication. But the requisition number was used to pay Curtain and Fabric Consultants R91E000 for mattress covers.
But three weeks ago De Villiers said the university does not buy mattress covers. “Students supply that [mattress covers] along with their bedding,” he said.
Staff and students contacted by the M&G this week said new curtains arrived only last month and did not appear to have been worth R600E000.
“Some buildings don’t have curtains; if they have curtains, they are old. The question is, where are those curtains that were bought since 1995?” asked a staff member.
Both staff and students mentioned their disquiet about the probe dragging on for so long. The probe began last July after the M&G made inquiries about the astronomical curtain account.
Said the staff member: “When we raised these matters last year, someone – whose name I won’t mention for the sake of your security and mine – threatened to take people to all sorts of forums, internal and external.
“We waited patiently and still the investigation is not complete, ostensibly because the documents could not be found. I smell a rat.”
The university last year suggested the large purchase “was occasioned by the wholesale theft from the [student] residences of thousands of rands worth of [curtains, mattress covers and other linen items], seemingly in November to December 1996. When students arrived for the 1997 year, they had to be supplied with these items.”
But this did not explain why large amounts had been removed from university coffers since 1995, before thieves cleaned out the student residences.
The South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) branch at the University of Zululand said last year that there were no new curtains in student residences. “Where are the curtains?” it asked in a pamphlet distributed on campus. “The student residences are using old and rotten rags for curtaining.”
The university said last week: “Sasco’s claim was looked into and found to be correct. The residences affected were then fitted with new curtains.”