They earn more than the president of South Africa, yet they depend almost entirely on public money for their income.
Meet the new mega-earners of academe. Leading the pack is Professor Aaron Ndlovu, vice-chancellor (VC) of Mangosuthu Technikon, who last year earned just less than R3-million.
Aubrey Mokadi, vice-chancellor of Vaal University of Technology (the former Vaal Triangle Technikon), earned R1,5-million, while Professor Neo Mathabe, last year vice-chancellor of Technikon SA, received R1,1-million.
They all earn more than the minister of education, who earns R746 000.
African National Congress MP Randall van den Heever recently asked Minister of Education Naledi Pandor about the remuneration of vice-chancellors and senior management of higher education institutions. The minister is still to answer the question in Parliament, but theTeacher’s sister publication Mail & Guardian asked the Department of Education for salary details.
Educationists who spoke to the M&G said it is outrageous that smaller institutions pay such high salaries. The same academics also made a clear distinction between institutions that derive all or most of their income from the state and those that generate much of their income themselves.
So, although the University of KwaZulu-Natal (formerly the universities of Durban-Westville and Natal), Potchefstroom University (now merged and called North-West University), Unisa, Stellenbosch, Free State University and Rand Afrikaans University all have their VCs and deputy VCs firmly lodged in the ‘upper” category, they derive far less of their total income from the state — only about 50% in some cases. By contrast, institutions such as Mangosuthu, Vaal and TSA last year derived most of their income from the state.
Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Edwin Cameron, the chair of Wits University’s council, expressed surprise at some of the VC salaries. Wits VC Loyiso Nongxa modestly sits in the ‘low” category.
And Geoff Budlender of the Legal Resources Centre, who chairs the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) council, said: ‘… the council sets the remuneration by benchmarking with similar South African institutions … It is beyond our means to match the private sector or the international market.” UCT’s VC, Njabulo Ndebele, is in the ‘middle” category.
Nic Wiehahn, chairperson of the Vaal University of Technology council, said: ‘This whole thing has gone through all the committees of council. It’s gone through the remuneration committee, it’s gone through the finance committee and they applied three criteria: performance, market and affordability … everybody agreed that the procedures were followed.”
Mokadi was ‘unavailable” to speak to the M&G, as was Mathabe.
Joseph Moloto, the human resources manager at Unisa, said the university bases the salary of its VC on the salary survey by auditing company Deloitte.
Ndlovu sent a message to the M&G that said: ‘It is discourteous just to phone and ask about [my] salary package. There is a protocol and that needs to be followed.” — Mail & Guardian