”There’s a litany of human rights abuses at Unisa,” charges senior lecturer in theology Dr McGlory Speckman. ”When academics are unable to express their views publicly, that’s an abuse of human rights. When the senate is unable to carry out a healthy debate, that’s an abuse of human rights.
”When newspaper editors are hounded for information on their sources, because some academics are suspected of wrongdoing, that’s an abuse of human rights. When the staff union can’t represent its members freely on labour issues without a reaction from management, that’s an abuse of human rights. My problems with the leadership at Unisa should be seen in that light,” Speckman told the Mail & Guardian this week.
Speckman is a softly spoken, 44-year-old academic theologian and ordained priest who has taken on the might of Unisa’s leadership. He is a member of the senate, of the executive committee of the senate (Senex), of the Institutional Forum (which advises the council on governance matters), and of the Academic and Professional Staff Association.
Last year he applied for the deputy deanship in the faculty of theology. With a doctorate, extensive publications and other attributes that he felt fitted him for the position, Speckman says he was persuaded by a majority of black members of the faculty to accept their nomination of him as deputy dean.
This he did. Only one other candidate emerged — Professor Lizo Jafta, head of the department of church history. A vote in the faculty of theology produced 40 supporters of Speckman and 12 of Jafta. A selection committee then interviewed both candidates, and recommended to Senex that Speckman be appointed. Senex in turn recommended this to the Unisa council.
But at this point, Speckman says, the Council Committee on Human Resources (CCHR) intervened, and ruled that Jafta should be appointed. After attempting to pursue various internal remedies, Speckman launched legal action, arguing among other things that the CCHR ruling showed undue interference by the council in academic matters.
Unisa’s answering affidavit argued that while the council does respect the terrain of the senate, as the overall governing body of the university it has the authority to make appointments such as that of deputy dean.
Two weeks ago the Pretoria High Court ordered that Jafta’s appointment was invalid and should be set aside, and that Unisa should pay the costs of the action.
”Now that South Africa is free, certain elements who were not part of the struggle, or who were not involved until very late, pursue selfish interests at the expense of democratic values, and hide behind the context of the struggle against apartheid repression,” Speckman said.
”They have been trying to do the same with those of us who have been vocal in the past and continue to be vocal today. If I allow this, I’ll be sending down the drain a history I’ve built over the past 30 years.
”From an early age — 11 — I committed myself to the cause of justice,” Speckman said. Apartheid tried to contain him — ”but I told myself never to allow that”.
Like several other Black Consciousness leaders, Speckman endured ”preventive” detentions without trial, for five months in 1976 and 10 months in 1977/8.
”When I came to Unisa in 1996, the university had just started transformation — the statement of intent was there. But individual members of Unisa still had racist tendencies. We tried as members of the Black Forum to address these issues.
”Thanks to the leadership of Dr Thebogo Moja [then chairperson of the council] and the Unisa Broad Transformation Forum [UBTF] changes had begun to take place that formed the basis for many changes we see taking place at Unisa now. Since then the culture of negotiation and consensus that the council and the UBTF had cultivated has been quickly eroded.
”That culture seems to have been replaced by autocracy and recklessness. There does not seem to be respect for internal policies agreed on before, nor even for the democratic Constitution of our country. The problem — the core of the struggle — is the CCHR. We thought it was established to uphold the principles and culture of transformation.
”But it is wreaking havoc — it’s not upholding transformation values. After all’s said and done, this whole matter is an indictment of management and governance at Unisa.” Unisa head of media affairs Doreen Gough said vice-chancellor Dr Barney Pityana and council chairperson McCaps Motimele were unavailable for comment. Concerning Speckman’s comments, she said: ”Unisa does not want to engage in a debate in the media with one of our colleagues.”
Unisa’s attorney, Joe Nalane of Nalane Manaka Attorneys, told the M&G he did not yet have the full judgement, but something is ”amiss” with it: the appointment of Jafta as deputy dean ”was not made by the CCHR but by the executive committee of the council and duly authorised by the council”. The judgement is ”appealable”, he said.