David Macfarlane
Unisa will receive its government subsidy this month but the university’s controversy-ridden council continues its open defiance of the government. Unisa staff fear the council’s stance jeopardises the university’s future, in particular the role defined for it in the national higher education plan.
Confrontation between Minister of Education Kader Asmal and the Unisa council, headed by controversial chairperson McCaps Motimele, reached a new high last month when the council appointed a new vice-chancellor, Barney Pityana, for a full five-year term. This was despite Asmal’s request that Unisa refrain from doing so, and from appointing other senior staff on long-term contracts, pending Unisa’s merger with Technikon SA (TSA) and Vista University’s Distance Education Centre (Vudec). The merger is a central pillar of the national higher education plan, which Asmal released in February.
Asmal’s concern has been to “ensure that the new institution does not come into being saddled with senior staff on long-term contracts, thus being forced to buy them out at astronomical figures”, he told Technikon SA staff two weeks ago. TSA and Vudec have both complied by not appointing senior staff for the meantime.
But the Mail & Guardian has learned that the Unisa council is pressing ahead with at least five senior three-year appointments without consulting Asmal, TSA or Vudec. These positions are vice-principal (tuition), vice-principal (planning and research), registrar, executive director (finance) and executive director (students).
Asmal announced on Thursday that in deciding not to withhold Unisa’s November subsidy, his prime consideration in the light of representations to him from Unisa staff and students has been “to ensure stability, especially as students are currently writing their end-year examinations”.
The Unisa council “is not acting in the best interests of the university”, Asmal said. It also “shows a disdain for public accountability and fiduciary responsibility … The government will not allow the merger process to be held hostage by narrow personal and institutional interests.
“Unisa’s current and future subsidy is conditional on the university complying with the agreement reached in the ministerial working group established to facilitate the merger, that is, that the appointment of senior academic and managerial personnel, whose contracts exceed one year, is subject to the approval of the other merger partners”.
The M&G understands that the council itself was divided on the appointment period for Pityana as it has been on numerous crucial issues since Motimele’s appointment nearly two years ago. Unisa insiders also say Motimele’s usual tactic is to brand all opposition to himself as racist and anti-transformation; but M&G sources say there is powerful unity across multiple Unisa constituencies, including racial ones, against the Motimele-dominated council.
There are now two petitions “circulating widely” through Unisa, M&G sources say. One originated from the sub-faculty of languages two weeks ago, and expresses “no confidence that the council, under the leadership of its current chairperson [Motimele], is acting in the best interests of [Unisa] and its students”. The M&G reported last week that the authors of this petition, which has been sent to Asmal, are facing possible legal action, initiated from within the council.
However, on Thursday the executive of Unisa’s arts faculty formally expressed its support for this petition and condemned any action that might be taken against the academics concerned.
The second petition, which began circulating though Unisa last week, also expresses no confidence in the council and calls for it to be dissolved. This too has been sent to Asmal. Between them the two petitions have nearly 1000 signatories.
In a management backlash against these petitions, acting vice-chancellor Professor Simon Maimela this week issued a statement condemning “direct and unauthorised communication with the Minister of Education” and with the media. “Internal legal processes have been set in motion to address the question whether the internal staff disciplinary code has been dishonoured by the staff [who organised the petitions].”
Motimele himself remains dogged by controversy. Legal action against him is pending in a case of sexual harassment brought by former Unisa professor Margaret Orr, and in a case brought by senior lecturer Dr McGlory Speckman alleging the council exceeded its powers in overturning his appointment as deputy dean of theology.
The elite Scorpions also have Motimele in their sights: he is one of 12 defendants in a case involving alleged fraud perpetrated against the North West government, centring on the award of a tender for supplying wall charts to all schools in the province. And the auditor general is currently investigating the remuneration Motimele and some other councillors receive for duties that councillors at most other tertiary institutions perform in the public interest for free. Findings in this investigation are expected within weeks.