Claims of mismanagement and maladministration hound the institution

MANY students at the University of Zululand have lost confidence in Vice-chancellor Xoliswa Mtose, with the student representative council-elect accusing her of trying to run the institution into the ground.

This follows allegations of maladministration made by certain former staff and students, which SRC president-elect Lindelani Duze described as worrying.

“We have a dictator who is being allowed to run loose but it’s the students who will pay the price when we graduate with worthless degrees,” he said.

Duze said students were angered by the university council’s decision to spend R20 million on the “unnecessary” purchase of houses for management, while students lived in appalling conditions.

“The state of some of the residences is bordering on inhumane and some students rent because there is not enough student accommodation. “Who cares about that?” Duze said their main concern was how the mismanagement affected the running of academic programmes.

The students now pin their hopes on the recommendations that Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education is likely to make after meeting with stakeholders, after the maladministration allegations surfaced.

In a report released in June, the committee expressed concern over alleged “abuse of power by the management”, exorbitant spending on houses for senior executives and hiring private security companies during the labour strike.

The committee members also observed that instability at the university had an adverse effect on teaching, and “this was evidenced by a decline in pass rates at all levels”.

“SRC governance was in disarray, lecturers altered students’ marks and admission requirements had been tampered with,” the report read.

The committee is expected to visit the campus next month for further engagements.

Duze said the perception was that management was using the institution’s finances to enrich itself.

His sentiments were echoed by another former student leader, Mthokozisi Cebekhulu, who said the uncertainty fuelled regular student protests at the University of Zululand.

“I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve had protests. If it’s not the students, it’s the staff.

“There are now factions on campus and those who speak out against the maladministration. Students like myself face suspension or expulsion while staff members are fired.”

Another student said she had considered transferring to another university because the qualifications of the University of Zululand were being compromised by its bad reputation.

“There are so many things being reported in the media and Mtose has not done anything to quell our fears.

“It is very unsettling. My friends and our parents are worried,” she said.

BED student Dudu Khambule, from umlazi, said she had tried to transfer to other universities because some of the lecturers allegedly manipulated students and sold degrees, but all her applications had been declined.

“I even applied to Unisa but they did not take me and I think it’s because of the media reports that Mtose changed the academic programme and, as a result, some of the modules were not accredited with the Council of Higher Education.

“Now I’m even more worried that I made a mistake coming here,” she said.

Duze said the SRC could not intervene because the university had appointed an administrator to take over their duties, after the SRC was interdicted on allegations of flouting electoral processes.

The court matter, which has dragged since September, was ended only recently.

University spokesperson Gcina Nhleko said allegations that management was running the university into the ground were based on “unwarranted, irrelevant assumptions and misperception”.

She described Mtose as a “visionary” leader, adding that the university had recently spent R70m on a 288-unit residential facility and rebuilding an electricity substation.

Meanwhile, the university’s former chief financial officer, Josephine Naicker, was back in the Durban Labour Court this week in a continuing threepart bid to get her job back.

Naicker was fired in May last year, barely five months into her new job, after an alleged fallout with the management and council over a report she submitted, in which she alleged that senior management had manipulated the supply chain procurement processes for personal gain.

The matter was adjourned, pending the finalisation of two other related court matters including alleged unfair suspension.

“This is what happens to people who report on corruption. You get dismissed and your matter drags on for years in the justice system, which allows the corrupters to loot with impunity. They prey on the delays in the justice system, which plays directly into the plan of looting from poor students.

“In the end, many abandon their fight against corruption because their pockets run dry,” Naicker said after the adjournment.

The university’s attorney, Dunstan Farrell, said there was nothing unfair or illegal about Naicker’s dismissal as it was based on poor performance during her six-month probation.

“There are several cases of how she failed to perform her duties. One of them resulted in a strike in January 2010, when she failed to pay the workers on time.

“In the end, the truth will prevail, and she knows that,” he said.