Vista University will take Minister of Education Kader Asmal to court in an attempt to resolve disagreements over crucial details of merger plans, which have been in contention for two years. The court action threatens to delay the country’s largest tertiary merger, involving Unisa, Technikon South Africa (TSA) and Vista University Distance Education Centre (Vudec) next year.
Acting Vista vice-chancellor Sipho Seepe said the court papers ”should arrive on the minister’s desk by Friday next week”.
The major sticking point is Asmal’s failure to settle on, and to announce, a legal successor to Vista’s central campus when the merger between Unisa, TSA and Vudec takes place in January next year.
Vista’s central campus is the administrative hub of the multi-campus university and employs about 150 people. Other Vista campuses will be incorporated into nearby institutions that will, in each case, be those campuses’ legal successors.
But central campus staff remain in the dark about who will take over their employment contracts. ”The council of Vista has made the decision to take the minister to court to force him to appoint a legal successor,” said Seepe. ”We have consulted with the minister for two years now and have found no joy. We do not need to consult any more.”
The Mail & Guardian reported three weeks ago that Vista was considering legal action against the minister. The article detailed correspondence between Vista, Asmal and the Department of Education, dating from July this year, in which Vista accused the minister of ”clear and unacceptable abdication of responsibility” concerning legal and other matters intrinsic to the university’s imminent demise.
Asmal lashed back, saying Vista ”has continually delayed the collation and provision of information” that is ”required to inform the incorporation process”.
”We suspect that this [the failure to appoint a legal successor] was an honest oversight by the minister, but there is a culture [in the education department] of not wanting to accept mistakes … It is this stubbornness that is bothersome because there are only six weeks before the closure of Vista is due to take place,” said Seepe.
He said the university was in the process of appointing lawyers. ”We want the best of the best to conduct our affairs.”
Seepe said Vista would only withdraw the court action if Asmal appoints a legal successor within the next week.