The resignation of a senior council member of the Durban Institute of Technology (DIT) has exposed the infighting and mismanagement behind one of the supposed success stories of the vexed tertiary merger process.
The Mail & Guardian has copies of two damning letters written by respected higher education academic Nico Cloete, saying the ”core business of the council is no longer higher education” and setting out why he was resigning from the DIT council. At least one was copied to Minister of Education Naledi Pandor as well as to DIT council chairperson, Vanessa Leo.
The DIT was formed out of the merger of the Natal and ML Sultan technikons more than three years ago, but Cloete’s letters — and other sources — suggest the new institution remains deeply divided and serves as a battleground for personal and political interests.
Cloete’s concerns came to a head over the allegedly flawed process of appointing a new vice-chancellor to succeed outgoing principal Dan Ncayiyana.
The chaotic appointment of Bonganjalo Goba, and the payment of a R2,4-million exit package to Ncayi-yana, have led the National Union of Tertiary Education of South Africa (Nutesa) to call on Pandor to disband the council and appoint an administrator.
There have also been student protests about the ”golden handshake” awarded to Ncayiyana, among other grievances.
Cloete’s letters now disclose how Goba’s appointment was rammed through council, despite legal advice that the process breached the DIT’s own rules. In a November 2004 letter copied to Pandor, Cloete, who heads the Centre for Higher Education and Training, said bluntly that the new vice-chancellor’s appointment was ”like a circus”.
”A very partial and incomplete verbal presentation was made to council. The presentation did not tell us that the selection committee had instructed the outsourced HR company not to head-hunt for candidates, nor that in most cases the advert appeared only once … with very short deadlines.”
Cloete said two key campus stakeholders, the senate and the institutional forum, had urged the council not to appoint, but to widen the pool of candidates by re-advertising.
Ignoring this plea, the council selection committee (CSC) put forward Goba and Wits University deputy vice-chancellor Thandwa Mthembu.
In his letter, Cloete said it was revealed to council that the selection committee had been split down the middle over the two, but at a subsequent CSC meeting, not fully attended, Goba was preferred by a small majority. ”No motivation for the preference [for Goba] was provided.”
Cloete’s letter says serious reservations were raised about Goba’s suitability, including the fact that he retired in 2001 as vice-chancellor of the pre-merger ML Sultan partly because of work-related stress, and that he was too closely associated with one of the merged institutions.
Nevertheless the chairperson ruled that council should vote on the recommendation of Goba. A number of members abstained, including some from the selection committee, leading to the vote being nullified.
According to Cloete, a caucus was called and CSC members were apparently instructed to vote for the selection committee’s proposal. The vote was retaken and the motion was carried by two votes.
Cloete argues that this ”bizarre series of events” raised ”serious doubts” about the legality of the process. He concluded his letter of resignation by noting: ”At present there is no role in this council for a person such as myself, a higher education expert, because the core business of the council is no longer higher education, but factional contestations over access to resources and political influence.”
Cloete was persuaded to withdraw his resignation. However, he finally confirmed it in a letter at the end of March after council appointed Goba, despite two legal opinions that it had violated its own rules.
Cloete had obtained advice from Cape lawyer Richard Rosenthal, which suggested the council decision was in violation of its own rules and was legally challengable. He e-mailed a summary of this advice to Leo as well as to the ministerial appointees on the council.
One of these, Theuns Tredoux, then obtained a further opinion from one of the minister’s legal advisers, advocate Kobus Boshoff.
In his letter, Cloete states: ”This legal opinion states very clearly that in the light of the numerous procedural violations, Council should not proceed, but re-open the process and conduct it according to the rules of council. Despite this, council proceeded to make an appointment.”
In his second letter, Cloete complained that as a member of council he had not been consulted about the package offered to Goba, nor on the amount of severance pay approved for Ncayiyana. He said the council was dysfunctional and should be disbanded.
Cloete declined to comment on his resignation, but other sources claim Goba’s appointment was pushed through by those who saw him as pliable and his appointment as a way to shift the balance of power towards the former ML Sultan stable.
Said another past council member who declined to be named: ”Academics and middle managers try to get on with their jobs, but the institution is being destabilised by the top structure — there is a continual battle by people vying for positions — teamed up with interests outside the campus.”
Fingers are also pointed at the unions, especially the Tertiary Education National Union, which is alleged to have won a dominant influence on council.
A former manager says DIT is crippled financially by the large number of non-academic support staff, but that unions have succeeded in blocking job cuts.
”Goba is a weak guy. He won’t support retrenchments. Without them, however, the institution is unsustainable.”
Nomonde Mbadi, the DIT’s executive director of public affairs, said Leo was unable to respond to Cloete’s allegations as she was out of town at a meeting with Pandor.