Team to probe university

Education Minister Naledi Pandor has appointed a crack team to investigate the running of Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology after its controversial vice-chancellor, Aaron Ndlovu, was sent on forced leave.

Former council chairperson of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and academic Vincent Maphai will serve as ‘assessor” after the university council found ‘discrepancies” in Ndlovu’s leadership.

A technical team under Maphai comprises Wits University registrar Derek Swemmer, the former chief financial officer of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Paul Slack, and Craig Lyall-Watson, a human resources expert from the education department. The team will look at a range of university issues, including governance, management and human resources.

Last month the university’s council asked Ndlovu to take leave while it conducted an investigation.

Council chairperson and eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba was recently quoted saying that the investigation ‘will look into, among other things, the benefits payable by the university to the vice-chancellor”.

Following a meeting on Wednesday, Mlaba refused to comment on the council’s decision about the future of Ndlovu. Mlaba said: ‘We will tell you when we have to. We will do it at the right time,” before switching off his phone.

Ndlovu became the first black vice-chancellor of the university’s predecessor, Mangosuthu Technikon, in January 1997 after a long academic and political career.

However, his leadership has been mired in controversy. In 2004 the Mail & Guardian revealed that he was earning more than R3-million a year, more than any other tertiary vice-chancellor and three times more than President Thabo Mbeki — despite his institution’s heavy dependence on state grants.

According to government statistics Mangosuthu is South Africa’s worst-performing university in terms of research output.

In 1999 the institution was hit by a four-week strike by staff and violent demonstrations by students after Ndlovu was accused of undermining the staff association. Staff were subsequently suspended.

In response to the upheavals, then education minister Kader Asmal appointed an independent assessor to investigate.

The assessor, former University of the Western Cape deputy vice-chancellor Jaap Durand, recommended Ndlovu’s dismissal, but the council refused to budge.

Durand also called for the re-examination of numerous staff suspensions which were still in effect. He concluded that with Ndlovu at the helm it was impossible for the institution to function effectively — academically or administratively.

A year later Ndlovu was suspended after the education department investigated student and staff complaints of favouritism, nepotism and illegal expenditure. He was reinstated after charges against him were dropped.

Earlier this year he was accused of having a political agenda after 16 students from the Inkatha Freedom Party youth body, the South African Democratic Students’ Movement, were suspended for allegedly drinking on campus. In July nine of the 16, all SRC members, were expelled.

Until recently council has failed to decide the fate of Ndlovu, despite 11 years of reported poor governance and his alleged hampering of academic freedom.

Commenting on the latest intervention, Thomas Blaser, education commentator at the South African Institute of Race Relations, said ministerial interference was in principle undesirable because it compromised the university council’s independence. ‘But what should happen when the vice-chancellor and the council are not doing their job?” he asked.

Blaser suggested that the university vice-chancellors’ association, Hesa, should help resolve the governance crisis at Mangosuthu University of Technology. ‘It is appalling to see things like this happen at this stage when the nation is in dire need of graduates,” he said.

The KwaZulu-Natal chairperson of the South African Students’ Congress, Sandile Phakati, said students at the university were deeply concerned about ‘the instability in the operations of the university”.

However, he called for Ndlovu not to be put on public trial before the council had made its final decision about him. ‘We have complained about the state of the university and the dilapidated lecture halls but we must not project the vice-chancellor as a bad person,” he said.

The fact that the Council did not take action against Ndlovu earlier raises questions about its competence and credibility. Sometimes weak councils, which might have external members who lack an understanding of how universities operate, are open to abuse by university management. In other cases tribalism prevails in councils, in defence of the vice-chancellor. University councils comprise representation from the university and external bodies. Councils are not accountable to the public but the university submits annual reports to the education department.

The role of councils came under the spotlight recently when an independent task team set up by the Council on Higher Education to investigate academic freedom, institutional autonomy and public accountability in higher education institutions released a report for public comment. The team recommended that a mechanism to promote the accountability of councils be identified, remarking that the fiduciary capacity of councils had been a perennial theme of South African higher-education governance.

It noted that Hesa and the Higher Education, Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom inquiry had called for more inclusive representation on councils to increase their accountability without stepping up government control, for better induction of council members to clarify their roles and responsibilities and for councils to subject themselves to annual self-evaluation.