”If Saths Cooper goes, but the bigger rot at the University of Durban-Westville [UDW] is not exposed, UDW will contribute a malaise to the new institution that will drag it down. There’s a history of patronage, positions gained for favours done, at this institution that predates Cooper’s term of office,” said Sello Mokoena, UDW lecturer, member of the university’s African Forum and former dean of the faculty of health sciences.
A year of intense turbulence at UDW was settled when the interim council met for the first time on Thursday and announced that the acting vice-chancellor would be current Natal head Malegapuru Makgoba. UDW’s merger with the University of Natal takes effect on January 1. Cooper assumed office in January, and his term expires on December 31. Makgoba was appointed last year, and has a five-year contract.
The new institution, to be called the University of KwaZulu-Natal, will bring together 11 000 students and 533 staff from UDW and 31 000 students and 2 400 staff from the University of Natal.
Stakeholders are upbeat about the nuptial.
”We have made very good progress and have met all our required targets and deadlines. Governance issues at UDW are internal to that institution,” said Makgoba.
NomaVenda Mathiane, spokesperson for UDW, said the university ”has contributed significantly to the progress made on the merger — all the legal criteria for the merger have been met. The substantive aspects will unfold over the next couple of years.”
Established in 1960 as the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island in Durban, UDW’s officially designated status as a site of inferiority made it a seedbed throughout the apartheid years for vociferous student activists at the forefront of the Black Consciousness Movement and the United Democratic Front. Cooper himself, an undergraduate at the college, spent time on Robben Island at the same time as other notable prisoners, including Nelson Mandela.
In 1971 the college was granted academic independence and became a university. The following year, the newly named UDW moved to its current location in the Durban’s suburb of Westville.
The University of Natal has campuses in both Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It was established in 1912 as the Natal University College. Its centrepiece, the faculty of agriculture, was approved in 1947. Two years later it was granted independent university status and adopted its current name. Like Rhodes University in Grahamstown, the University of Natal cultivated an imperial shine and enjoyed the privileges of a historically white institution under apartheid.
The widely reported governance and management maelstrom at UDW since Cooper’s appointment in January this year, and upheavals under his predecessor, Mapule Ramashala, have threatened to derail the merger process.
”We were involved in planning for the merger for 18 months before Cooper came into office in January,” said Mokoena. ”There was a planning committee with representation from all constituencies. But merger meetings at UDW this year have largely consisted of trashing Natal. As a result, nothing concrete has been achieved from our side [UDW’s] this year.”
The Mail&Guardian has reported since June on senior appointments, including to the council (a university’s highest decision-making body), made since Cooper assumed office, which allegedly flouted the university’s own procedures.
”People are scared to speak at UDW, because of the politics of patronage. The problems [this year] reflect a larger malaise concerning appointments and camps: in earlier [apartheid] days such appointments were political, now they’re a product of patronage,” said Mokoena.
Financial and governance controversies exploded in June with the high-profile shock resignation of Professor Pitika Ntuli, the dean of students. At the time he told the M&G there is now a ”climate of fear and intimidation. People who used to be robust cultivate careful silence now.”
The firestorm at the institution, which included controversy over Cooper’s exact earnings, escalated, forcing Minister of Education Kader Asmal to appoint Transnet chairperson Dr Bongani Khumalo in September to investigate suggestions of ”serious problems in the governance and management” of UDW, ”strained” governance relationships, a ”divided” council, and a ”prevailing climate of fear and suspicion not conducive to an academic environment”.
The Khumalo report, which was based on 26 interviews with 32 individuals, confirmed all the details the M&G had published about irregular appointments, the university’s financial malaise and Cooper’s ”serious and entirely false impression” about his remuneration. The Khumalo report also fingered Lionel Nicholas, deputy vice-chancellor and Cooper’s right-hand man, in particular on explanations from UDW about who was paying him that Khumalo found wholly misleading.
In an attempt to pre-empt Khumalo’s investigation, Cooper had earlier commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to audit UDW. But this seriously backfired after Khumalo confirmed the audit’s findings and incorporated them into his report.
”UDW’s turbulence has given more to South Africa than has been recorded — it’s been a training ground for leaders,” said Mokoena. ”But students’ minds are now being polluted: they’re been shown by example that the only way to succeed is to take shortcuts, cheat, wheel and deal — that’s the worst crime I’ve seen.”
Thulani Dube, the president of the UDW student representative council, said ”the vice-chancellor is an individual with his imperfections. He shouldn’t be judged only by what is wrong.”
He said students feared changes to the fees structure for the new merged institution. ”The registration fee for tuition at the University of Natal is currently R5 000 compared with UDW, which charges R1 700. Disadvantaged students are concerned about how the restructuring process will financially inhibit their entry into the University of Kwazulu-Natal.”
Several joint task teams, which include staffers from both universities, are driving the merger process. Each institution has a separate merger steering committee, which meets monthly.
”In all mergers the human factor is of paramount importance,” said Brenda Bell, head of the University of Natal’s merger planning secretariat. ”Most of the concerns, as distinct from practical problems, are about how people will fit into the new structures. In some cases job descriptions will need to be altered to accommodate new structures and functions. There is a fear [among staff] of job losses although it has been emphasised that the merger is not intended as a downsizing exercise.”
Makgoba said ”no staff retrenchments are planned for the immediate future”. But Mathiane said there is no legislation that ”precludes the new institution from undertaking personnel restructuring for operational reasons”.
”The merger is a strategy for the province it’s never had before,” said Mokoena. ”In the past, the province’s rich intellectual heritage has been lost — now there’s a new opportunity.”
Antenuptial contracts
With their terms of office due to expire within weeks, several members of the University of Durban-Westville’s (UDW) management team will receive hefty and backdated salary increases, writes David Macfarlane.
Both the University of Natal, with which UDW is to merge as from January 1, and senior UDW academics say this is yet another instance of UDW senior management’s bad faith in preparations for the merger.
But UDW has issued a counterblast, accusing Natal of ”non-disclosure of information” concerning salary packages of its staff.
The Mail & Guardian has a copy of minutes of a ”special meeting” held on Monday November 17. They reflect that four people were present, including controversial UDW vice-chancellor Saths Cooper, who chaired the meeting, and Sivi Chetty — also under fire for months because of his allegedly illegitimate election to UDW’s council.
The minutes record a ”decision” that the salaries of professors RG Ori, S Moodley, JG Mowatt and D McCracken be increased to ”the maximum of R473 000 with effect from 1 July 2003 with 50% of this difference being dependent on performance”. Professor PJ Zungu’s salary is increased ”to a maximum of R359 000 with effect from 1 July 2003”.
Certain executive members also score. The minutes read: ”Noting that the executive directors who had been appointed on fixed-term contracts, viz Prof MS Maharaj, Prof TD Chetty, Prof B Pillay and Prof PS Pillay, had received incorrect 10% salary increases with effect from 1 April 2003, and that these incorrect increases would be recovered with immediate effect, resolved that after the recovery no executive director should be below R433 000 from 1 April 2003.”
Pillay and Maharaj soar to R482 500 backdated to April 1, and Pillay notches up another increase taking him to R507 250 as from July 1.
The salaries of two deputy vice-chancellors, Lionel Nicholas (whose appointment was also allegedly illegitimate) and KS Satyapal, rise to R665 000 backdated to April 1 and increase further to R696 000 from July 1.
At last Friday’s council meeting, these increases were discussed. A council member present told the M&G that Cooper was asked whether Natal University had agreed to the increases, as required by the Memorandum of Agreement signed by both universities in May as part of merger preparations. Cooper apparently assured the council Natal had agreed, and the council, on that basis, accepted the increases.
Not so, says Natal vice-chancellor Professor Malegapuru Makgoba. ”I can categorically say these increases were never discussed with Natal. They appear to be out of cycle [the agreement allows for normal annual increases] and so violate the Memorandum of Agreement.”
There is no violation of the agreement, UDW spokesperson NomaVenda Mathiane said. ”Our position on this matter is that Natal University is in violation of non-disclosure of information [sic]. [Natal has] refused to disclose their salary packages as well as terms of appointment for their senior executives, including their vice-chancellor.
”UDW has not been asked to approve or agree with any salary/ packages offered by Natal University to its senior executives. We do not understand why you expect Natal University to approve our senior executive salaries.”
The M&G reported in June that several senior management appointments at UDW since Cooper took office in January violated the memorandum because Natal’s agreement had neither been sought nor given.
These increases come on top of the UDW’s executive awarding itself annual performance bonuses — also discussed at Friday’s council meeting. Cooper himself will get about R300 000 for his performance this year, on top of his annual salary of around R1,5-million.