Africa-Press – South-Africa. The battle for the soul of Unisa is not ending soon.
The Unisa council has four separate legal challenges against Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande as it fights against disbandment.
Higher education spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi confirmed to News24 that the department was embroiled in the four cases in its ongoing battle with the council of the 450 000-student-strong tertiary institution.
Unisa’s lawyers hope that the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria will grant the draft order they prepared, which puts the brakes put on Nzimande’s plans to remove the current council and put Unisa under administration, pending the outcome of a review application.
Appointing an administrator forms part of an independent assessor’s report into alleged malfeasance at Unisa.
According to its chairperson, Mashukudu James Maboa, the Unisa council wants to review and set aside Nzimande’s decision, taken about three weeks ago.
The minister, explaining his decision in a letter dated 4 August, said Unisa was riddled with “financial and other maladministration”, an example of which was a R176 million wage bill that Nzimande said equated to 78% of the institution’s total expenditure.
Nzimande also said the council was “rife with financial irregularities” and lacked ties of “a deep understanding of the higher education enterprise.”
But Maboa, on behalf of the council, said the body launched its review application because it had a “statutory mandate” in terms of the Higher Education Act to “protect the institutional integrity of the university”.
In his founding affidavit, Maboa added that the Act’s preamble provided for tertiary institutions to “enjoy freedom and autonomy in their relationship with the state within the context of public accountability”, adding that Nzimande’s plans to implement the assessor’s recommendation of disbanding the council were “premature”.
Maboa added:
It won’t be the first time an institution takes Nzimande to court over his plans to put it under administration.
In 2012, Central University of Technology, then led by Professor Thandwa Mthembu, took Nzimande to court and won.
Mnisi told News24 the department had “four cases that we have to respond to on Unisa”. He could not be drawn into revealing the nature of the cases.
Commenting on the current review application of the assessor’s report, Mnisi said: “I can’t share any information on this case for now as we are yet to appear in court on it.”
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
