Internal conflicts between university management, students, labour unions and the Department of Higher Education and Training headed by the Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, are far from over. The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation convened a meeting with three universities: Cape Town, Fort Hare and the University of South Africa (UNISA) to try and understand the root causes of persistent governance and administrative-related challenges in the sector.

University stakeholders attending the meeting included university councils, management, representatives of organised labour, institutional forums, student representative councils, and representatives from the Department of Higher Education and Training and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). The meeting took place after a high-level briefing from the department on the state of governance and administration at these universities.

The committee’s deliberations on UCT centred on the Independent Panel report into UCT governance. The committee was particularly interested to understand the reasons behind the departure of the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning and the subsequent departure of the Vice-Chancellor and the resignation of the former Council Chairperson.

The committee believes that the non-disclosure agreement signed between the former VC and the UCT Council prevents it from having full insight into events. This is seriously concerning given that institutions of higher education are public institutions and cannot shy away from public scrutiny, especially when R12 million in taxpayers’ money is involved.

The committee was also concerned about the review of the constitution, mandate and/or the terms of reference of the panel investigation after the departure of the former VC and the fact that the conduct of the that VC was excluded from the investigation. The committee believes that issues at UCT are not just about two feuding VCs but also the regression in gender transformation at a predominantly male-dominated sector. The committee recommended that it should be privileged with the independent panel’s report by the end of October for its consideration.

Meanwhile, the University of Fort Hare informed the committee that approximately 18 of its staff members were members of a special protection programme due to threats to their lives. The committee reiterated its concerns that heavy security presence at institutions of higher learning needs to be addressed. The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education Science and Innovation, Ms Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, said: “We cannot afford as a sector to be spending so much money on security and militarisation of the higher education sector.” The chairperson praised the interventions of the Minister of Police, which have begun to yield positive results at Fort Hare.

Finally, the committee heard from UNISA, which reported to the committee that some of the matters of interest to the committee were part of the university’s legal review against the independent assessor’s report and that the matter is still pending in court. UNISA pointed out that university management and council were not given a right of reply before the independent assessor’s report was finalised, which was against the principle of audi alteram partem. The Chairperson of Council further argued that placing UNISA under administration would cause irreparable damage to the reputation and stature of the institution and negatively affect its ranking, which has risen in recent years.

The committee expressed a desire for an opportunity to engage with the Minister, the Department of Higher Education and Training and the independent assessor at UNISA regarding concerns raised about the report. The committee also noted concerns raised by organised labour about their representation on university councils. The committee encouraged the Department of Higher Education and Training and the university councils to investigate the matter.

The committee further recommended that the universities strengthen stakeholder relations between senior management, organised labour and student leaders.

The committee finds itself having to meet the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) again to deal with widespread and persistent student dissatisfaction with the scheme. The standoff between NSFAS and students has on previous occasions led to a student march to Parliament demanding assistance from Members of Parliament with what students call the scheme’s administrative deficiencies.