Unisa’s council will make an urgent application in the North Gauteng high court in Pretoria on Tuesday to interdict higher education minister Blade Nzimande from placing the institution under administration.
Nzimande wrote to council chair James Maboa on August 4 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 the appointment of an administrator would be in the best interests of Unisa and of higher education in an open and democratic society.
Nzimande recently agreed to extend the period for council to make representations to him to 30 days from the date of his August 4 notice.
Maboa is also asking the court for an order interdicting Nzimande from implementing any of Mosia’s recommendations contained in his report dated March 13.
He said he deposed an affidavit on August 1 in support of an application to review and set aside Mosia’s report.
In his recent court papers, Maboa stated that Nzimande wants to implement the recommendations of the independent assessor’s report “which will entail dissolving the council”.
“The decision by the minister to act on the recommendations is premature.”
He said that council through their attorneys addressed a letter to Nzimande on August 8 imploring him not to act under guidance of the report “as it was impugned”.
“It is abundantly clear that the decision to appoint an administrator is a fait accompli because he addressed correspondence to the vice-chancellor’s attorneys on August 11 indicating he is unable to wait for the review proceedings.”
On March 31, vice-chancellor Prof Puleng LenkaBula launched an application to review and set aside Mosia’s report.
Dissolving council based on an unlawful report which may later be set aside will only bring disrespect and disgrace on the name of the university.
— Prof Puleng LenkaBula
“On August 3 council and Unisa launched the application to set aside the report. Both applications are pending.”
He said Nzimande and Mosia had not answered to the review application by Unisa and the council.
“The council and Unisa have good prospects of success. The council filed a comprehensive review application. To date, the independent assessor and the minister have not filed any answering affidavits.”
He said Unisa was a big institution with more than 450,000 students.
“When the council is dissolved, the administrator takes over the management, governance and administration of the university. The council cannot be reconstituted at a later date to cure a dissolution.”
He stated that the university “will be dissolved based on an unlawful and invalid report”.
“The impact is that dissolving council based on an unlawful report which may later be set aside will only bring disrespect and disgrace on the name of the university. The decision to place the university under administration should be taken with caution.”
Maboa stated that its chancellor, former president Thabo Mbeki, “has recently pronounced that the independent assessor’s report does not represent what Unisa is all about”.
“There is nothing catastrophic which will happen at the university while the review applications are underway.”
Mosia found that the management committee is not working as a coherent team and lacks the maturity required to effectively manage a complex university.
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