Higher education, science & innovation minister Blade Nzimande has flagged corruption at universities as one of the factors leading to unstable governance at these institutions.
Nzimande told parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation last week that closer attention had to be paid to governance issues at universities.
“Universities have become huge sites for personal and private accumulation if you look at the budgets, supply chain and procurement and so on. As corruption increasingly becomes a problem in our society, our institutions of higher learning have not been left untouched,” he said.
Nzimande and his team were briefing MPs on governance and management challenges at the University of Cape Town (UCT), the work of the independent assessor at the University of SA (Unisa) and the state of affairs at the University of Fort Hare and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
There was leadership turmoil recently at UCT, seen as Africa’s leading higher learning institution, leading to the resignations of vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng and council chair Babalwa Ngonyama.
Both Ngonyama and Phakeng were facing allegations of mismanagement. The UCT council has appointed a panel made up of retired Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) president Lex Mpati, retired SCA judge Azhar Cachalia, Bernadette Johnson and Patricia Hanekom to probe allegations against Phakeng and Ngonyama.
The department said it remains concerned about developments in the investigation and continues to monitor the situation.
“The appointment of an independent assessor by the minister may be the relief that many are seeking. However, it may be premature to intervene until the independent panel has concluded its work,” the department said in its presentation.
“The minister is awaiting the conclusion of the investigation and the submission of the report by council. The minister will therefore consider the actions to be taken thereafter as guided by the prescripts of the Higher Education Act.”
Unisa, SA’s largest university by enrolment, came under scrutiny after damning findings by an independent assessor report compiled by Prof Themba Mosia.
Mosia recommended that Nzimande appoint an administrator to take over the role and powers of council. He reported on financial and other serious maladministration.
The department told legislators that Nzimande had received a response from the council and was still considering his position on the matter.
The ministry said the governance situation at Fort Hare remains “fragile”.
“Safety concerns of the university staff, poor stakeholder relations, and the ongoing allegations and investigations compound the fragility. The department continues to monitor the developments relating to the various investigations by law enforcement agencies, relating to the allegations of corruption, the murder of employees and arson attacks.”
A magistrate’s court in the Eastern Cape heard last month that there were bounties on graft busters at Fort Hare. The court heard about a hit list with the names of 13 people, including vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu.
The university’s fleet manager Petrus Roets was killed last year.
UKZN has also been rocked by allegations of an extortion scheme fleecing private accommodation providers of R80m.
Six people, including three UKZN staff and two former student representative council (SRC) presidents have since been arrested. “It appears that the scheme has been operating for years,” the department said.
Nzimande said 16 independent assessors were appointed since 2000 to probe governance instability at some of SA’s 26 public universities.
“We have studied those reports very closely, and there are some common issues that are emerging. One of the things that is striking is that we continue to be faced with the challenge of inexperienced council members,” he said.
“Poor leadership at the levels of councils and sometime at the level of management is also a contributory factor. Unacceptable conduct by some council members and nonadherence to meeting procedures is also a problem ... for example, it has been drawn to our attention that at Fort Hare for the last two meetings they couldn’t agree on a council agenda and therefore those meetings have not taken place.”
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