Pretoria | Tuesday
THE University of South Africa (Unisa) has urged Education Minister Kader Asmal not to withhold the subsidy of the institution.
”It is of vital importance that the university continue unhindered in the delivery of its service to students during this crucial time of examinations and registration,” Unisa acting principal and vice-chancellor Simon Maimela said in a statement in Pretoria.
”We as a management team at Unisa are confident that these unfortunate areas of disagreement with Mr Asmal will be settled within the next fortnight.”
Over the weekend Asmal decided to withhold Unisa’s R41-million state subsidy and ordered a probe into the payment of the institution’s council members.
The university would have received the remaining R200_-million of its more than R400_-million subsidy on November 1. This was after Malose Motimele, chairman of the council, refused to back down on a council decision to appoint Human Rights Commission chairman, Barney Pityana, as Unisa’s vice-chancellor.
The move has resulted in the minister being at loggerheads with Unisa and Motimele.
In another letter to Motimele, Asmal had also expressed concern over the remuneration packages being paid to board members.
He said he had asked the Auditor General to investigate the remuneration of board members because he believed that they were being paid too much and also that the policy regarding their payment was being applied incorrectly.
Asmal in May this year informed all South African universities that a honorarium of R1 000 per month, including travel and accommodation costs, was sufficient for board members.
However, Unisa’s board members were allowed to claim R1 500 for every committee meeting they attended. This increased the university’s annual allowance costs to R1,1_-million, while Asmal wanted to limit it to about R200_000.
Maimela said later: ”These obstacles take away the focus of Unisa, as a national asset in higher education serving the largest population of students in the Southern African Development Community countries.”
”We welcome the presence of the Auditor-General’s office at the Pretoria campus on Monday to clear up misconceptions regarding the remuneration of council members.”
He said that at a recent meeting between Unisa management and Asmal, the minister raised the issue of remuneration of council, which he said was way above what was paid to other tertiary councils.
Maimela said the complexity and size of Unisa, its government structure and the programme of transformation, which necessitated the frequency of meetings and involvement of council was explained to the minister at the meeting.
”We pledge support and assistance to help the Auditor-General to complete the investigation on council remuneration within the two-week time frame set aside for the exercise.”
Maimela said the university supported the merger with Technikon SA and Vista University Distance Education Campus.
”The Ministry can rely on the commitment of the Unisa task team to contribute to serve the best interests of the open distance learning students in SADC and elsewhere in the world,” he said. – Sapa-AFP