UCT chair Babalwa Ngonyama has written to the UCT community, saying the university council will meet about vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng soon and report its decisions by the end of the week.
She acknowledged the institution had experienced a tumultuous start to the year.
Ngonyama wrote: We have scheduled a meeting ... to thoroughly and thoughtfully consider options and potential resolutions, after which we will report back to you with the way forward. We do not want to pre-empt any outcome.”
Media reports on Friday said that council had voted to suspend Phakeng imminently, giving her 48 hours to state why she shouldn't be suspended.
This followed a council meeting on February 9, in which the university leadership body took legal advice on whether suspension and a disciplinary hearing could run concurrently with the panel that is already investigating issues around executive resignations.
A panel chaired by retired judged Lex Mpati is interrogating whether Phakeng and the council chair misled the panel about the resignation of the former deputy vice-chancellor of teaching and learning, Lis Lange.
The panel is also investigating a string of executive resignations and concerns about Phakeng’s management of senior staff.
Since the announcement of the panel in 2022, the registrar — Royston Pillay — resigned after two decades at the institution, and COO Reno Morar also quit. That apparently caused the majority of the council to turn against Phakeng and raise concerns about her leadership style.
Advocates had told the council that a suspension could take place if the panel's terms of reference were updated to include a disciplinary hearing .
Ngonyama acknowledged the instability at the institution noting the fact UCT academics almost went on strike over wage demands. Then student protests disrupted the planned start to lectures last week.
“This is not how we envisaged 2023 beginning. We expected the university to return to a level of normalcy”.
She said UCT had secured an interdict on Friday to stop protesters from violence, intimidating students or staff, erecting barriers on campus, interfering with the UCT shuttle service and interrupting lectures.
“While we seek solutions to student grievances over fee blocks and accommodation, we require the academic project to continue uninterrupted.”
She said the university would “transcend and overcome these challenges.”
When contacted by Business Day at the weekend, Phakeng declined to comment.
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