Turmoil is set to continue in the upper echelons of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) after two senior academics vowed this week to take legal action against the university. This follows the UKZN council’s announcement recently of a tribunal’s findings into allegations of sexual harassment against its two top officials, council chair Vincent Maphai and vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba. The tribunal cleared both men of the allegations.
The allegations were made in November by Pumela Msweli-Mbanga, dean of management sciences. The tribunal was also charged with looking into a postgraduate degree controversially awarded last year to Kanthan Pillay, the university’s chief finance officer.
It was in Msweli-Mbanga’s faculty that Pillay was awarded the degree. An earlier investigation had recommended that the awarding of the degree be nullified because of several irregularities in the way it was awarded. It had also been alleged he paid Msweli-Mbanga R80Â 000 and had a sexual relationship with her.
Msweli-Mbanga claimed she was victimised after rebutting sexual advances from Maphai and Makgoba and that doing so had retarded the advancement of her career at UKZN.
The UKZN tribunal consisted of retired judge Alan Magid, former CCMA head Thandi Orleyn and University of Cape Town law professor Christina Murray. Their report clears both Maphai and Makgoba of wrongdoing, and says Msweli-Mbanga’s ‘evidence … suffered from a number of fundamental defectsâ€, being contradictory and inconsistent at key points. The report also confirmed earlier findings that Pillay’s degree had been improperly awarded and should be set aside.
Msweli-Mbanga had alleged that Maphai’s emails, telephone calls and SMSs, ‘extended beyond what could be called normal communications between senior management persons … They ranged from small talk, frivolities, invitations to his hotel room after hours, all with a view to develop an intimate relationship …†The tribunal found her evidence in support of such claims ‘less than convincingâ€, while finding Maphai to be a ‘a credible witnessâ€.
The tribunal also found several charges against Makgoba to be ‘without substanceâ€, such as an alleged invitation to join him on a flight to London or comments he made to her about sex workers at a conference he had attended in Europe.
On other charges, such as a specific sexual invitation in September 2005 and a ‘sexually overt statement†Makgoba allegedly made in her office last year, the tribunal said it ‘cannot give council the unqualified assurance that those charges, whatever we may think of them, have no substanceâ€. It found Makgoba to be a ‘generally credible witnessâ€, although his evidence was, on occasion, ‘evasiveâ€.
Concerning Pillay, the report implicated him, Msweli-Mbanga and three other senior members of the school of accountancy in flawed processes leading to the award of his MCom degree. It recommended that Pillay and the other staff members be ‘reprimanded but otherwise not be subjected to any disciplinary action on the basis of our findingsâ€.
Having considered the tribunal report on Tuesday night, the council announced the following day that it had dismissed Pillay with immediate effect. ‘The council found it unacceptable to have a member of the executive of the university and a chief finance officer who fails to observe the rules and lies to a council-appointed tribunal,†acting council chair Mac Mia said.
Mia also said the council had accepted Msweli-Mbanga’s resignation, which she submitted in November. Msweli-Mbanga had been offered a senior position at the University of Johannesburg, an offer it suspended when it heard that UKZN was investigating her involvement in the awarding of Pillay’s degree.
Msweli-Mbanga then asked the council to revoke her resignation pending the outcome of an enquiry into her allegations of sexual harassment. Mia said that with that process now complete, the council had reinstated her resignation with immediate effect.
Since the storm over Msweli-Mbanga’s allegations broke late last year, council members who asked to remain anonymous have repeatedly told the Mail & Guardian that a power struggle is being waged in the upper reaches of UKZN, especially over Makgoba’s leadership style. The M&G understands that a small group of councillors tried, but failed, to persuade others to joining them in using the scandal over Msweli-Mbanga’s allegations to mobilise against the vice-chancellor.
Maphai told the M&G this week that there has been speculation that ‘some council members were involved in the sexual allegations. But we don’t work on rumours — council will have to decide how to act.â€
Makgoba confirmed that he knew of ‘two council members who wanted to use the allegations to mobilise against meâ€, but said the issues raised by the whole episode ‘are not about governance at all … This is an issue about an irregular degree, and that goes to the heart of what a university is about.â€
Pillay said that his dismissal when the tribunal recommended only a reprimand showed that he was being victimised. ‘I have for a year been raising concerns about governance at UKZN. I wrote to Maphai about this, and Makgoba saw what I wrote. He knew he couldn’t control me. I’m a pawn in this: I challenged issues and became unmanageable.†He will challenge his dismissal in court, he said.
Both Pillay and Msweli-Mbanga deny allegations that they had a sexual relationship and that Pillay paid her R80 000 for making sure he was awarded the degree. ‘It is still a mystery to me where those allegations come from,†Msweli-Mbanga said. It is equally a mystery why the council thinks she has now resigned, she said: ‘The council revoked my resignation.†She too will take UKZN to court on this point.
She claims ‘information has been used, misused and selectively used to paint a particular picture in the media’ and that she has ‘had to endure slander and defamation of my characterâ€. She is writing a book about her experiences at UKZN that is close to completion and that shows ‘how women are seriously abused by men in powerâ€.