Unisa pleads for Nzimande's ear over administrator appointment

In a new twist, Unisa’s council has requested the minister of higher education, Blade Nzimande, to allow the court to rule on the independent assessor’s report before he makes his final decision on appointing an administrator for the institution.

Nzimande wrote to council chair, James Maboa, last Friday informing him that he was satisfied that a report by independent assessor Prof Themba Mosia “reveals financial and other maladministration of a serious nature and serious undermining of the effective functioning of Unisa”. 

 He told Maboa that Mosia’s report revealed that the appointment of an administrator would be in the best interests of Unisa and of higher education in an open and democratic society.

He gave Maboa seven days to make written representations to him concerning the action he contemplated taking and indicated that he would consider it and take a final decision thereafter. 

Maboa confirmed to TimesLIVE that the council met on Thursday afternoon to discuss their response to Nzimande’s letter but declined to provide further details. However, impeccable sources have told TimesLIVE that in a letter that Maboa sent to Nzimande on Thursday, he said they did not agree with the conclusions reached by Mosia. 

The council took a decision on June 7 to go to court to have Mosia’s report reviewed and set aside. They lodged an application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on July 4. The matter is yet to be heard. 

Maboa is said to have told Nzimande in the letter that they were confident that the court would rule in the council’s favour and that, as a result, they did not intend to further respond to the conclusions made by Mosia. 

According to sources, he told Nzimande that placing Unisa under administration would cause irreparable harm to its reputation and stature and that it would affect Unisa's ratings and rankings, which have been on the rise in recent years. 

Nzimande’s attention was drawn to the fact that 18 out of 23 members of council had joined only after his decision to appoint a ministerial task team in 2020, led by Vincent Maphai. 

He is said to have told the minister that the composition of the council had drastically changed since the time of the ministerial task team report and Mosia’s report, and that he would be dissolving a relatively new council.

According to sources, Maboa asked Nzimande to consider their submission and take a decision that will not cause further harm to the reputation and business continuity of Unisa. 

Sources said Maboa asked Nzimande to give them a final communication if he remained unswayed by the council’s plea and wished to immediately proceed with placing the university under administration. 

This was because the council requested members not to resign before there was clear finality on the matter as this would affect the governance stability of the university. 

Sources said Maboa told Nzimande that they wanted to avoid a situation where the members, most of whom came after Mosia’s appointment, find themselves unable to serve on future boards because of having been previously removed from a position of trust. 

Maboa and his deputy, according to sources, were also available to meet Nzimande to further discuss details of the letter they sent to him on Thursday.     

Nzimande informed Maboa in last Friday’s letter, which has been seen by TimesLIVE, that Mosia’s findings, among others, include:

• There were serious institutional governance problems that started a while back and are continuing;
• Internal control weaknesses were identified in supply chain management and ICT, and finance processes and noncompliance was found to be pervasive and an area of prime concern in Unisa;
• The management committee (mancom) is not working as a coherent team and lacks the maturity required to effectively manage a complex university; 
• The management committee knowingly took irregular financial decisions that had and have far-reaching consequences for the university, including a decision to implement selective salary adjustments for academic staff and some of the support staff; and
• A scheme for the procurement of laptops for staff amounting to more than R87m was fraught by deviations from the SCM policy.

Reacting to Nzimande’s intention to appoint an administrator, Jonathan Jansen, distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University, said “it is a sad but necessary and long overdue decision that allows Unisa to reboot after years of malfunction, corruption and incompetence.

“This is amply documented in both the Vincent Maphai (ministerial task team report) and Mosia report which are in the public domain. 

“However, whether an administrator [replacing a council] is sufficient to turn around Africa’s largest university depends on a whole lot of other factors, including the quality, experience, skills and determination of the administrator to be appointed.” 

TimesLIVE