Vista University has sent a letter to Minister of Education Kader Asmal ”alerting” him that in terms of the Higher Education Act he cannot close the university at the end of the year. The government gazetted its intention to do so in December last year.
And Asmal faces yet more legal action, this time from 50 Vista staff who could lose their jobs by the end of the year. The action could soon widen to include 400 staff members.
Vista’s acting vice-chancellor, Sipho Seepe, told the Mail & Guardian: ”We were advised by our legal counsel this week that in terms of the law it is impossible for the minister to close the university by the planned date … There are certain legal steps that the minister must undertake and these haven’t been done yet.”
The university is destined for closure in terms of massive tertiary restructuring. The M&G,/i> reported last month that Vista University was planning to take the minister to court because of his failure to settle on, and to announce, a legal successor to Vista’s central campus when the merger between the University of South Africa, Technikon South Africa and the Vista University Distance Education Centre happens in January next year.
The legal successor will take over employment contracts — but Vista central campus staff remain in the dark about who the successor will be.
Meanwhile 50 of the 150 employees at the central campus, who stand to lose their jobs when it eventually closes, last week filed an urgent application against the university, the minister and the trustees of the Vista University Early Retirement Trust. ”This can grow to a possible 400 applicants who stand to lose their jobs when Vista closes,” said Marlon Stuart, the attorney acting on behalf of the 50 employees.