David Macfarlane
Incensed senior academics at the University of South Africa (Unisa) have now had enough of the shenanigans of their own council and are fighting back.
On Thursday they sent an urgent “memorandum of concern” to Minister of Education Kader Asmal, expressing “no confidence” in the council under its present chair, advocate McCaps Motimele.
The memorandum says Unisa’s ongoing internal power struggles and negative publicity have the “potential to jeopardise the transformation of the higher education sector”.
It lists eight areas of concern, including the council’s “interference in the management of Unisa”, its overriding of “procedurally correct selection processes” in the appointment of senior academics, and its “total lack of transparency … and lack of accountability to the university or the minister of education”.
Motimele is currently a defendant in a high court suit brought by theology senior lecturer Dr McGlory Speckman, alleging the council exceeded its powers in overturning his appointment as deputy dean.
The memorandum also expresses fears that “reserve funds for retirement … will be misappropriated” to fill a financial gap left by Asmal’s partial withdrawal of Unisa’s subsidy.
This follows ongoing warfare between Asmal and the council over Unisa’s appointment of a new vice-chancellor, Barney Pityana. Asmal had wanted the previous incumbent, Professor Antony Melck, to stay in office pending Unisa’s merger with Technikon SA and Vista University’s Distance Education Centre.
It also emerged this week that Motimele appears to solicit student support via financial and other means.
Unisa sources say he pushed through an increase in student representative council (SRC) members’ payments: executive members now earn R1 200 a month, and the budget for the SRC is more than R1-million.
Mail & Guardian sources also say some SRC members live rent-free in university-owned furnished flats. And, although student members of council are supposed to be on the SRC’s national executive, the current two – vociferous Motimele supporters – apparently do not fulfil this requirement.
This week the auditor general began investigating the remuneration Motimele and some other council members receive from Unisa.
The M&G reported in February that Motimele rakes in about R30000 a month and some others councillors R20000 for duties councillors at most other tertiary institutions perform for free.
Thursday’s memorandum to Asmal calls on him “to take decisive action to normalise governance at Unisa”.