Mukoni T Ratshitanga
The Vaal Triangle Technikon council this week rubbished a report on the troubled institution commissioned by Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu and announced it will challenge the minister’s intervention in court.
The fight between the technikon and the minister was triggered by the council’s decision to discipline rector Aubrey Mokadi, accused of inefficiency, abuse of technikon funds and nepotism.
In May, the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court ordered Mokadi to repay R32 000 to the technikon after he ordered human resource manager Chris Smith to hike his housing allowance from 8% to 14% last year.
Mokadi also bought a second car for personal use through technikon coffers without proper authorisation. The technikon has since repossessed the vehicle.
Other allegations against Mokadi include defrauding the technikon’s international donors.
Bengu last month dispatched former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape, Professor Jaap Durand, to probe the technikon’s troubles.
The report pinned the blame on the 25- member council rather than Mokadi, recommending the council be ousted and a new one decide Mokadi’s fate. It suggested that the existing council’s disciplinary hearing of the rector, chaired by Johannesburg advocate Ronald Sutherland, be ignored.
The council responded to Bengu: “If this recommendation is forced on to council by the minister, it will be seen as nothing short of a circumvention of justice.”
The council said they rejected legitimacy of Durand’s report, Bengu’s handling of the report and the reasons behind Durand’s appointment in the first place.
The council wrote to Bengu: “In terms of Section 45(b) of the Higher Education Act . specific circumstances must first prevail at an institution of higher learning before such independent assessor may be appointed by the minister.
“Council has not been enlightened as to the prevailing circumstances necessitating the appointment by the minister nor when they first presented themselves at the institution.”
While accepting the Mokadi controversy fell outside of his terms of reference, Durand nonetheless devoted 16 of the 18 paragraphs of his report on the Mokadi matter.
The council told Bengu: “Council is left no alternative but to wonder how Durand managed to execute his terms of reference effectively when he spent so much time and energy focusing on Mokadi and his subsequent disciplinary inquiry.”
The council’s response to Bengu has savaged Durand’s claim that the institution’s woes began with Mokadi’s suspension.
“To presume that all conflict in this institution arose after Mokadi’s suspension and has solely to do with Mokadi shows a lack of insight into the complexities of student politics, institutions of higher learning and their individual nuances,” the council said.
They claimed Durand’s report was “inconclusive and at best based on vague assessments, assumptions and perceptions. At worst it is completely void of any accurate facts.”
How, they asked, could Bengu accept Durand’s recommendations without affording them the opportunity to respond?
The council claimed Durand’s report was an excuse to address the issues of Mokadi and his subsequent suspension and disciplinary inquiry. “It is irregular in that it was not part and parcel of the investigation that Durand was mandated to complete,” they added.
The council also hit at Durand’s claim that it was meddling in the day-to-day affairs of the institution. For example, Durand criticised daily payments to members during times of unrest at the institution.
“Professor Mokadi, prior to his appointment as rector of our institution, was chair of our council. During that time, Professor Mokadi put in various claims against the institution amounting to R24 400 for a period of six months,” the council hit back.
The outcome of Mokadi’s disciplinary inquiry is due before the end of October.
Meanwhile, five members of the council who are believed to be close to Mokadi resigned last week, saying they believed Durand’s report pointed to the lack of the council’s credibility.
One of them, Winnie Johnson, had been accused of having a romantic affair with Mokadi.