UNIVERSITY FALL OUT
Concerned former UCT Convocation presidents call for calm, unified resolution to governance wrangle
Barney Pityana, Lorna Houston and Eddy Maloka have appealed to university leadership to ‘avoid the temptation of defensiveness and sweeping challenges under rugs’ at the cost of finding solutions.
A call is being made to the University of Cape Town (UCT) council to use an upcoming meeting as “an opportunity” to calm ongoing leadership troubles at the university.
In a statement, three former presidents of the UCT Convocation appealed to university leadership to “avoid the temptation of defensiveness and sweeping challenges under rugs at the cost of finding solutions” — in reference to reports of governance instability.
The three are Barney Pityana, Lorna Houston and Eddy Maloka.
The former presidents of the UCT Convocations met at the weekend to discuss various reports about turbulence at the institution.
The three met on Sunday 9 October within their capacities as UCT alumni, “out of concern and due to their commitment to UCT as their “Alma Mater”.
Pityana, who holds a PhD in religious studies from the university, became president of the UCT Convocation in 2015. He is the current chairperson of the troubled National Lotteries Commission.
Health activist Houston was president of the Convocation between 2017 and 2018.
Maloka, a former special advisor to ministers and premiers, resigned in 2021 following the appointment of a white professor to act in the capacity of executive head of transformation following the sudden departure of Professor Loretta Feris, as reported in Davis’s article in DM and earlier by News24.
The group commended reports that the chair of the UCT council Babalwa Ngonyama “has heeded calls for an independent investigation led by a retired judge,” following publication of a dissenting statement by 13 members of the council on Friday, 7 October, distancing themselves from an ‘irregular’ and ‘flawed’ process at a special meeting where a motion into an independent probe by a retired judge was blocked.”
Read in Daily Maverick: UCT to launch internal investigation into governance crisis after accusations against VC and chair
“This is a step in the right direction towards creating a conducive environment and restoring public confidence in Council,” said the group of former presidents of council.
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“Our point of entry is and should be the protection of brand UCT and its reputation, as well as issues of good governance and academic freedom on campus,” said the group and added: “the women-led executive at UCT has been an inspiration to many young women in our country — it is very disconcerting to hear that some people have resigned and signed Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)”.
In addition for the group calling for UCT to avoid the temptation of defensiveness and sweeping challenges under the rug — at the cost of finding solution, the group also called for:
- Council to use the meeting that the Chairperson is convening as an opportunity to calm down the situation, forge unity within Council and across the UCT community, sincerely seek a lasting solution, and launch a genuine and inclusive healing process.
- UCT leadership to consider sharing with the University community the commissioned report by retired Justice of the Constitutional Court Froneman, with Kgomotso Moroka SC, on governance at UCT.
“We commit ourselves as members of UCT alumni community and former presidents of the Convocation, to offer our support to find collective solutions, and help build the university for the future,” said the group in a statement.
Governance challenges within the university’s senior leadership have been under scrutiny, coming to a head following an investigative report by Daily Maverick outlining concerns raised over governance instability.
Read in Daily Maverick an investigation by Rebecca Davis: Dark days: Accusations of capture and governance instability rock UCT
The university’s spokesperson has responded to the investigation. Read it here: Report on alleged ‘capture’ at UCT is mischievous, unethical and misleading
News24 reported that Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande had asked UCT for a formal report to “fully appreciate what is currently taking place at the university”.
On Monday, the DA in Parliament has said it had written to the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa to ask that Phakeng and chair of the council Babalwa Ngonyama appear before Parliament to account for these issues that have been made public.
DA spokesperson (Shadow Minister) Chantel King described the fallout as a “governance crisis” and added: “we hope the portfolio committee chair regards this meeting as very crucial and urgently makes contact with the university to send through a report with documentary evidence on this matter”. DM
Disclosure: In the interests of transparency, Daily Maverick here lists staff members and paid contributors with links to UCT. None of the people listed below was quoted in, or used as sources for, the investigation:
Maverick Citizen Editor Mark Heywood is an adjunct professor at UCT’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance.
Maverick Citizen Managing Editor Anso Thom’s life partner Gerda Kruger is Executive Director at the UCT Department of Communication and Marketing.
Daily Maverick paid contributor Pierre de Vos is the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance at UCT.
Daily Maverick day editor Janet Heard’s sister Vicki Heard is the operations manager for the Centre for Higher Education Development at UCT.
Daily Maverick general manager: Reader revenue & books Fran Beighton’s father-in-law is Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics Peter Beighton.
Even the idea of “finding solutions” is actually an exercise in under the carpet sweeping, because if the leader of am institution like UCT doesn’t already know how to behave there is only one solution. And the same applies to the Chair. Blatantly voting against a resolution to investigate their own actions, rather than recuse themselves from an obvious conflict of interest, means they don’t know right from wrong.
Getting the parliamentary cheque collectors involved in UCT is a disaster. The Chancellor and the former Presidents of the UCT Convocation and the current President should work to find a solution. That useless parliament that is not able to find a single solution for the country’s problems. To politicise the problem of UCT more than it is, is to add fuel to the fire. The DA has always been very naive as the opposition by placing trust in dysfunctional parliamentary committees run by thugs. The leadership of UCT must tell the thugs where to get off. We cannot have people who have broken everything they have touched to fix UCT. They must deal with the SOEs, Phala Phala, DigitaL Vibes, theft of public money and other issues in the AG Report. They are are unfit to deal with UCT.
“Challenges” – must be the most abused word in South Africa. Invariably the fact that we feel challenged is because we do not have the competence to deal with something that would otherwise just be straightforward management.
“Governance wrangles”? Do you mean the efforts of certain folk to deflect attention away from the fact that UCT Senate has almost certainly been lied to, and more than once, and UCT academics and Council members object very strongly to very senior people completely ignoring the issue of conflicts of interest? That kind of wrangle? The idea of former leaders of UCT’s Convocation, which really is nothing more than a talking shop, getting involved in the issues is also laughable.
This statement is quite rich in its irony; penned by the chair of the (“troubled”?) national lotteries commission, and the former chair of convocation who resigned over the appointment of a “white male” (horror or horrors!) to succeed DVC Ferris.