University of KwaZulu-Natal communications chief Dasarath Chetty is on the receiving end of a brisk communication from his own academic association, censuring him for bringing a defamation suit against a colleague.
In a motion adopted at its AGM last week the South African Sociological Association (Sasa) said it ”defends the right to freedom of expression, which includes academic freedom, and urges all members to uphold and defend these freedoms”.
It continued: ”Sasa censures Professor Dasarath Chetty for bringing a defamation case against the then-president of Sasa, Professor Jimi Adesina, which, had it been successful, would have discouraged members of the academic community from practising these freedoms.”
A past president of Sasa, Chetty had sued Adesina, a professor of sociology at Rhodes University, for R100 000 in damages over an open letter Adesina wrote last year, in which he criticised Chetty’s behaviour in the run-up to a staff strike at UKZN in February. It focused on a communique in Chetty’s name to university staff, asking them to refer media inquiries during the strike to Chetty’s office.
Adesina wrote that this amounted to a gag on staff and compared it with a banning order former Transkei homeland leader Kaiser Matanzima issued in 1976 against Clarence Makwetu, later president of the Pan Africanist Congress.
Adesina said Matanzima’s ”nice and orderly” language ”fooled no one” and neither would Chetty’s communique.
In March the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court dismissed Chetty’s claim with costs.
Sasa president Johan Zaaiman said this was the first time the association had adopted such a motion. ”It was important that Sasa take a stand. We’re seeing academic freedom more and more under pressure as some university managements become less and less democratic.”
In response Chetty said the Sasa motion was ”an ambush” on him motivated by colleagues ”jealous and bitter” over the success with which he had organised the World Conference on Sociology in Durban a year ago.
He said he would appeal against the judgement in the Adesina matter and that UKZN was footing his legal bills. ”I have no problem with academic debate and freedom, but I do have a problem with being called Kaiser Matanzima.”