/ 19 November 2004

So, what did he really earn?

It’s one of the worst-performing and smallest tertiary institutions in the country, yet its vice-chancellor (VC) last year earned nearly double his nearest mega-earner in the goldmine of public money lavished on some higher education leaders.

Mangosuthu ”functions well below the national averages for technikons”, according to the 2001 report of the National Working Group (NWG) submitted to former education minister Kader Asmal. The 11-member group was chaired by Saki Macozoma, with Gill Marcus as deputy chair.

In reaching its conclusion the report considered graduation rates, student drop-out numbers, the low quality of study programmes most Mangosuthu students were then registered for, qualifications of staff and research outcomes.

Now it has emerged that the 2003 financial statements Mangosuthu Technikon submitted to the Ministry of Education did not meet all government requirements for such statements.

Minister of Education Naledi Pandor told Parliament on September 15 that ”the chair of [Mangosuthu’s] council [Obed Mlaba, also mayor of Durban] has not signed the 2003 financial statements, and only a draft copy has been submitted”.

Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that the technikon’s VC, Professor Aaron Ndlovu, raked in nearly R3-million last year.

His nearest co-workers in the higher education goldmine were Pretoria Technikon VC Professor Reggie Ngcobo (R1,735-million) and Vaal Triangle Technikon VC Professor Aubrey Mokadi (R1,543-million).

Pandor was responding to a question that Independent Democrats MP Lance Greyling tabled. The minister told Parliament that the 2002 statements ”were a year late and the technikon had to be told that no further [government] subsidy payments would be made until the statements were received”.

Mlaba has still not signed the 2003 financial statements, the national Department of Education told the M&G this week.

Ndlovu himself sat on the council subcommittee that determined his salary, a former Mangosuthu employee claimed on SAfm’s Morning Live programme on Monday, when the M&G’s story last week on VCs’ and DVCs’ 2003 salaries at all tertiary institutions was discussed during the programme’s After 8 Debate.