Judge Edwin Cameron should not stand for re-election as chairperson of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) council, three student organisations said on Wednesday.
In a joint statement, the South African Students’ Congress, the Young Communist League and the university’s student representative council said transformation at the university has occurred at a slow pace over the past 10 years.
Cameron, who has chaired the Wits council for 10 years, has ”come to run the university like his personal business”, the student organisations alleged.
They accused the council under Cameron’s leadership of playing an ”overlapping role, interfering on management decisions and influencing appointments of staff members even when it was not due”.
They also alleged that the council has ”undermined other university governing structures” and that that Cameron has presided over fee increases and endorsed massive ”financial and academic exclusions of mainly poor and black students”.
The privatisation of services and the appointment of the vice-chancellor were also criticised.
In response, the university said it has robust governance procedures for the appointment and selection of representatives of its various organs.
Cameron’s term of office ends at the end of May unless he is reappointed, said Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel. However, he remains a council member until the end of May 2009.
Council members are nominated on the basis of their expertise and standing in the community, she said.
”The university has made significant progress in the past years in various areas related to transformation in its quest to become a truly academically excellent and transformed institution,” said Patel.
Student finance is a priority project and between R80-million and R100-million was allocated over the past three years to financial aid. Last year, R92-million was raised from external donors for needy and academically excellent students.
A six-monthly workshop is held to address the issue and there is a Wits student bursary fund, said Patel. — Sapa