When the University of the North (Unin) and the Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa) merged to create the University of Limpopo (UL), the new institution was bound to inherit both the strengths and weaknesses of its constituting parts.
Unfortunately, a recent report into wide-ranging problems at UL appears to suggest that the institution’s historical weaknesses have gotten the upper hand, posing a serious threat to its healthy functioning.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor appointed a special envoy, Professor Bennie Khoapa, earlier this year to try and get to the bottom of the current difficulties.
His report indicates that institutional collapse is imminent unless management and governance of the institution is strengthened.
The investigations further found, to mention only a few, that factionalism — a historical problem at Unin in particular — reigns supreme among staff members and that administrative functions have taken a knock due to poor direction from the top.
The findings of the report raise serious questions. Most pertinent of these is why two troubled institutions — the difficulties go back to the 1980s — had to merge with unresolved and deep-rooted issues looming so large.
At Unin there had been two previous government investigations in the last eight years. Although the subsequent appointment of administrator Patrick Fitzgerald did seem to get Unin back on track, this was clearly not a long-term solution. The Khoapa report shows that UL has lost the plot again.
So, who should act to get the UL out of this mess?
Against the backdrop of previous investigations and the one conducted this year, it is clear that the university has failed dismally to solve its own problems.
Although the council, like in the past, has a pivotal role to ensure that the proposed recommendations are put into play, it is not inspiring confidence.
The education ministry on the other hand seems confident that its probes, someday, will help change to eventually befall UL. This sort of optimism seems misplaced.
But the hands of the ministry of education are tied. It can yield a big stick behind the scenes, but unbridled meddling into the affairs of an autonomous UL could have other unintended outcomes.
Higher Learning is therefore appealing to UL and the ministry to work together — and do so with great urgency — to resolve this crisis as soon as possible and to do so in a transparent manner.
The failure to get UL back on track will have far-reaching consequences. It is an institution that has a vital role to play in providing students with access to higher education in the rural regions it is serving.
The powers that be cannot simply allow petty self-interest and poor management and governance to allow a national educational asset to collapse irreparably.