While members of council at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape serve as a “labour of love” without being paid a cent, their 18 counterparts at North West University raked in R1.8m last year to attend 62 meetings.
North West University (NWU) splashed out a further R1.1m on council expenses, including R787,622 on hotel accommodation, meals and refreshments for the 18 members and an additional 23 university employees who participated in council and subcommittee meetings.
Meanwhile, independent assessor Prof Themba Mosia, who conducted a probe into the affairs of Unisa, found that its R2.2m expenditure for 85 council and subcommittee meetings last year was “excessive”.
Rhodes University, the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Stellenbosch University (SU), Wits University and the University of Cape Town (UCT) confirmed to the Sunday Times that they don’t pay honoraria to council members for attending meetings.
Jonathan Jansen, distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch, said, ideally, council members should not be paid honoraria because “these are public universities and council service is therefore public duty”.
“These are not private companies for profit and so the comparison of university councils with ‘boards’ of corporates is not apt. There needs to be a values commitment that is consistent across institutions that it is an honour and privilege to serve on the council of a public university.”
Jansen said that when some universities issue substantial honoraria and others not “it is unfair to those who do similar if not more work for no financial reward”.
A random survey by the Sunday Times found that the chair of council at NWU received R7,310 per meeting and a council member R3,658, while their counterparts at the University of Pretoria (UP) received R6,278 and R4,362 respectively.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HI-RES VERSION OF THE GRAPHIC BELOW
The University of the Free State (UFS), which only started paying honoraria to council members in 2019, paid R2,120 per meeting to the chair and R1,484 to members.
Nelson Mandela University said the chair was paid R1,000 per meeting in 2021 and members R750.
Mosia’s report indicated that the chair of Unisa’s council, James Maboa, received R6,232 last year while members received R4,363 per meeting.
He said in his report though some members mentioned that they did not earn as much money as those on private boards, “the total cost of having 80 or more meetings of council can go a long way to use the money to support other institutional programmes, for example, student support”.
UFS spokesperson Lacea Loader said several members have declined the honoraria which has been reallocated for bursaries for students.
She said they believed the honoraria was reasonable and that “thorough benchmarking with several universities was done” before it implemented the honorarium system.
UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder said they spent R295,000 on 63 council and subcommittee meetings last year.
“We provide flights and one night's accommodation for council members residing outside the Western Cape.”
UP spokesperson Rikus Delport said a number of their 18 external members of council donate their honoraria to the UP scholarship fund to assist students, thus receiving no financial reward.
Wits’s registrar Carol Crosley said all members of council participate voluntarily, “though travel costs for out-of-town members are compensated”.
“Our meetings take place in hybrid form since the pandemic, which has enabled members who are not in Johannesburg to participate online. All meetings are held on Wits’s campus and in-house catering is provided.”
SU spokesperson Martin Viljoen said the total costs for accommodation and travel last year was R58,492.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said last year’s council meetings were held virtually and no costs were incurred.
We have to appreciate that universities are 'big business' in many ways with cash flows that exceed some private sector entities
— Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at UFS
Rhodes's spokesperson Velisile Bukula said they only covered travel and accommodation costs for members.
NWU spokesperson Louis Jacobs said the honoraria was viewed “as a gesture of gratitude to external members for making their expertise available to the university”.
“These members are professionals who offer their time to the university and must take leave of absence at their day jobs.”
Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at UFS, said having served as a council member at a university previously, he was aware that some external council members, who are not employees, gave their time to attend and serve on university councils.
“These are mostly senior and skilled people whose time and knowledge are valuable and would be costly in the private sector. I, therefore, don't think the honorariums are unreasonable.
“We have to appreciate that universities are 'big business' in many ways with cash flows that exceed some private sector entities. The difference perhaps is that universities are established to serve the public good instead of chasing profits for their own sake.”
He said Unisa had a number of governance challenges in the past few years which required council to sit for extraordinary meetings, adding: “So, if that is the context, then perhaps the cost in that year is justified.”
Maboa said Unisa’s council was compiling a response to submit to higher education minister Blade Nzimande on the assessor’s report, and the issue of honoraria will also be responded to in that.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.