The council of Unisa has until Thursday to respond to Dr Blade Nzimande’s letter notifying it that he intends to place the university under administration.
The minister of higher education, science and innovation wrote to the council, chaired by Mashukudu James Maboa, on Friday informing it of his intention to appoint an administrator to the 150-year-old university.
In a statement to the media, Nzimande said he was satisfied that the independent assessor’s report reveals financial and other maladministration of a serious nature which affects the effective functioning of the university.
“The report reveals that the appointment of an administrator is in the best interest of Unisa and of higher education in an open and democratic society,” the statement said.
In an interview with the public broadcaster, department spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said Nzimande was not convinced by the council’s response to the independent assessor’s report that they understood the severity of the contents of the report.
Nzimande appointed professor Themba Mosia in September 2022 to investigate governance and management issues at the distance-learning institution, including allegations of financial, human resources, and supply chain irregularities and the state ICT and institutional policies.
Mosia’s report, which he submitted to Nzimande in March, painted a gloomy picture of an institution on the brink of collapse.
It revealed “a cauldron of instability characterised by a culture of fear, intimidation and bullying, instances of maladministration, financial irregularities, human resource failure, a very fragile and troubled ICT environment, poor student services, academic malpractices, leakages of confidential records, and questionable management and council decisions, among others”.
Unisa appointed its first female principal and vice-chancellor (VC) in professor Puleng LenkaBula in 2020. LenkaBula took charge at Unisa in January 2021.
The report has been scathing of the office of the VC and the strained relationship with the office of the registrar, professor Steward Mothata, who has since been fired.
Among Mosia’s finding is that the VC bloated her office with an additional staff, some of which duplicated other functions, costing the university an additional R14-million.
In his report, Mosia said: “The new positions being proposed include positions that appeared to be a duplication of structures that already exist in the university, such as among others, a legal counsel and head: legal support although there is a LSO [legal service office] in the university headed by an executive director, which is supposed to deal with all legal matters.”
The report also revealed that renovations to the official residence of the VC, whose budget was set at R1-million and were supposed to be completed by May 2021, cost the university more than R3-million.
“The approved budget of R1-million only covered kitchen renovation and minor maintenance,” Mosia notes in his report.
Mosia also writes that LenkaBula inherited many problems from previous vice-chancellor, professor Mandla Makhanya.
In July 2020, Nzimande appointed a ministerial task team chaired by Dr Vincent Maphai to conduct an independent review of the university. In its report to the minister in 2021, the task team flagged governance issues.
The task team’s report describes the Unisa council as “the root cause of the problems at the university”.
“The council has dismally failed Unisa as it has not equipped itself, or the management committee, with the range of skills and competencies necessary to provide appropriate strategic guidance and direction to a modern open distance e-learning institution in the 21st century,” states the task team’s report.
The Maphai led-task team found Unisa’s ICT infrastructure to be unfit for purpose, describing council as having failed to deliver on its basic fiduciary responsibilities of ensuring the institution had the necessary infrastructure necessary to education.
Maphai’s findings were also confirmed by Mosia’s report.
Mnisi said during an interview with the SABC on Monday that based on the task team’s report and the independent assessor’s report, it is clear that the council was not in a position to run Unisa.
He said Nzimande will announce his final decision after considering the council’s response.
Mnisi said the minister has already shortlisted individuals from which he will announce the candidate to take on the task of administrator.
When the minister places Unisa under administration, council will be dissolved.
The administrator will then make a determination as far as the executive management of the university is concerned, which will include, but not limited to disciplinary action.
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