Johannesburg - NGOs have now taken it upon themselves to take the beleaguered Unisa Vice-Chancellor (VC) and Principal Puleng LenkaBula and the university’s council to task.
This follows LenkaBula’s latest move to suspend Unisa’s registrar Professor Steward Mothata.
Social Justice and Transformation NGO, Right to Justice has called on Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, President Cyril Ramaphosa and civil rights movement AfriForum to take immediate action against LenkaBula following her latest blunder.
While Mothata was considered a voice of reason at the troubled university, LenkaBula has, in a desperate bid to stay in power, shown him the door.
The beleaguered VC suspended Mothata following his call for council to cease meetings because it was no longer forming a quorum following the resignation of several council members.
Following widespread reportage on allegations of corruption and malfeasance at the university under LenkaBula, the Higher Education Minister instituted an investigation into Unisa, chaired by Professor Themba Mosia.
Mosia found that corruption grew under LenkaBula and a general breakdown of relationships ensued between the VC, council and staff.
The report revealed that the VC flouted the tender process when she splurged more than R3 million on her residence’s upgrade, while only a R1m upgrade was approved.
It reveals that R74 000 was spent on air conditioning, R49 000 on the replacement of a borehole, a startling R28 500 on the procurement of curtains, R19 000 on a glass gas hob, and over R3 000 on the procurement of a mattress protector.
Mosia’s report also placed on record that LenkaBula demanded an extra staff component of nine people for her office, including a chef, the head of social media, and several assistants. The new bloated team would approximately cost the university R14 million.
Mosia gathered data and information from a range of institutional policies, reports, minutes of meetings, submissions from the university community, social media posts and media reports, and numerous interviews over a wide-ranging spectrum of Unisa stakeholders.
Mosia found that many policies were outdated and had not been reviewed as required by the university. In addition, these policies had been violated by management and the council.
He said that non-compliance with policies and condonation of questionable decisions were pervasive.
As a result of non-adherence to policies and other factors, he found it was “fashionable” at Unisa to seek legal opinions that came at a high cost to the institution.
Another contentious issue was how the salaries of people in LenkaBula’s office were suddenly bumped up and given back pay backdated 15 years.
This was, however, done with no motivation and no minutes of any discussion.
Right to Justice chairperson Zwelakhe Dubasi said Unisa under LenkaBula is on its last legs.
“As NGOs, we will take the Department of Education to court if need be. But we must free our institutions of LenkaBula. The Mosia report recommended that the council be dissolved but LenkaBula is still there suspending executives. We are calling all stakeholders to join us” Dubasi said.
According to the letter of suspension sent to Mothata, he has been accused of having also brought the university into disrepute after he cancelled meetings of the council, and he was charged with further bringing the university into disrepute after he cancelled council meetings.
LenkaBula is believed to have purged Mothata so that she can take full control of the council, this after the suspension and expulsion of the executives who raised issues of governance at the institution – Modidima Mannya, head of legal Dr Lesley Ntswane, executive SMPD Zweli, executive director Human Resources, Xola Lingani chief auditor, Dr Phasoane Mokgobu, VP Institutional Development and Human Resources and now the registrar.
“Unisa Council no longer complies with the provisions enlisted in Section 27(6) of the Higher Education Act and the Statute of the University.
“The composition of Council is no longer compliant with Section 27(6) of the Higher Education Act.
This Section (read together with paragraph 8(4) and 20(4) of the Institutional Statute) provides that “at least 60% of the members of Council must be persons who are not employed by or are students of the Higher Education institution concerned”.
Nzimande has no option but to relieve LenkaBula and council of their duties” Dubasi said.
Unisa through a statement said: “Please note that this is a matter between Professor Mothata and the university and the standing practice in the university is not to discuss such matters in the public domain, including through the media.”
The Star