Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The rector of Technikon South Africa (TSA), Adriaan Buitendacht, is paid an annual salary of nearly R1-million. And he is scheduled to get a salary increase next year.
Discontent is running high among workers, labour unions and senior staff at TSA about the “purported extravagant” salaries paid to top management, especially the rector and vice-rectors.
Directors of programmes at TSA are at present paid a maximum of R476 674 a year.
Senior directors and deans are paid up to R603 739 a year. These payments include benefits.
TSA’s four vice-rectors are each paid up to R724 250 a year, making them among the highest-paid academics in the country.
Senior officials contend Buitendacht’s R988 000 in annual benefits is unjustifiable expenditure of public funds. The rector’s payment is decided by the TSA council.
But TSA representative Gerald Grobler said the technikon paid high salaries in order to attract competent people to serve the institution. The salary scale is competitive with the market for jobs of similar responsibility, Grobler said.
Buitendacht has served as rector for many higher education institutions in the country.
He was seconded by the apartheid national education department in 1980 to the rector of the Academy for Tertiary Education until 1985.
Buitendacht left the academy in 1991 to join the Vaal Triangle Technikon. He resigned a year later to join TSA.
Senior TSA officials acknowledge Buitendacht is a well-qualified academic, respected by academics in the country and some parts of Africa. But they still think he is paid too much.
Among other highly paid academics is the former rector of the Vaal Triangle Technikon, Aubrey Mokadi, who was dismissed for misusing technikon’s funds. Mokadi was paid a R400 000 a year.
University of Western Cape rector Professor Cecil Abrahams was reported to be earning about R660 000 a year, his deans R300 000 and vice-rector R440 000 a year.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) has expressed dismay at the salaries paid to top management at TSA. “We want the technikon council to freeze these exorbitant salaries paid to the top management,” said Nehawu provincial secretary Mike Dube.
Dube said Nehawu has called for the intervention of Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu at the technikon.
“There is huge corruption activities involving the top management,” Dube said. “The management has even refused to give stakeholders an internal audit report which exposed more than 105 cases of corruption at the campus.”
Nehawu is currently negotiating salary increases for the lower-grade workers at TSA. Management has offered a 5% increase and Nehawu is demanding a minimum increase of 10%. Nehawu has threatened a legal strike if the management did not address their concerns.
TSA representatives said salaries for the rector and vice-rectors for 1999 will be determined by an “appropriate” analysis of the Gauteng market.
National Department of Education officials this week said the education minister currently has no power to determine academics’ salaries or to order them to disclose what they earn.
“The issue of salaries for rectors and academics is negotiated by the institution’s council,” said education department representative Beki Khumalo.
Textbooks written in tongues
Thokozani Mtshali
The Department of Education in Mpumalanga has bought 13 500 basic language books that are unusable because they are so badly written. Language experts and teachers found that the books intended for grade one Sepedi learners are a corruption of Setswana, Sepedi and Isizulu. They declared the books unsuitable for use.
“I can’t believe that this book is a Sepedi publication intended for teaching young learners of this language,” said Professor Phaka Makgamatha of the department of Northern Sotho at the University of the North. “No foundation in the learning of Sepedi can be laid by means of a material constituted of at least four languages.
“Everything is wrong, each page has more than one error and it is the lowest standard of Northern Sotho,” Makgamatha said. “It does not give any foundation. It will have a negative effect because it is worse than what is spoken on the streets.
“Everything is just a joke. It seems like the book was published before it was actually written. Someone told them [the authors] about the deadline, they rushed and fortunately, they met it.”
The book, Bokamoso Bja Rena, co- authored by A Matabane and J Boshomane, was supplied to all Northern Sotho schools for grade one Sepedi learners in April this year. The education department refused to reveal to the Mail & Guardian how much money had been wasted on the purchase.
Dr Jerry Mojalefa of the department of African languages at the University of Pretoria observed: “They [the publishers] sound like people who are not competent in the use of the language. Almost every page is wrong, every sentence has a mistake and words are wrongly applied. One wonders how teachers will use that. I would recommend that the thing [the book] be sent back for rectification. So far, it must not be used for teaching.”
It is unknown how the book made it into the government catalogue, made up only of books that have been screened by the department of curriculum management and examinations. No schools made any requisition for the book.
Mpumalanga education MEC representative Peter Maminza acknowledged that the department bought the book, but he said he did not know how it escaped the screening process. “Usually we evaluate the manuscript and see if it is in accordance with the criteria laid by the department.
“I don’t know how the publishers managed to supply us with defective material. We are in contact with them to find out what really happened. Once we get all our documents outlining that procedures were properly followed, the department will take necessary measures to recover the money. You are the first to alert us on this problem.”