Africa-Press – South-Africa. Pheladi Gwangwa, the former deputy council chairperson of the University of Cape Town, wants the Western Cape High Court to review and set aside the decision to remove her from her position.
Gwangwa was removed from the position by a council vote of no confidence in December.
In a 187-page affidavit submitted to the court, Gwangwa is seeking to have the “impugned decision to remove” her and the “process leading to that decision” declared procedurally unfair or unlawful.
Gwangwa said she did not bring the application for any personal gain or benefit, but in order to vindicate the rule of law and to ask the court to scrutinise the “impugned decisions in the interest of safeguarding the principles of good governance in public institutions such as UCT and in the interest of ensuring that universities remain places which accommodate a wide variety of schools of thought and ideas even at the level of governance”.
In court papers, she said:
Gwangwa added that she believed the decision by the council to remove her was “unconstitutional, unlawful, irrational, unreasonable and did not arrive in a procedurally fair manner”.
At the centre of the controversy is an independent judicial investigation into the governance crisis at UCT.
A panel was constituted last year following allegations that former council chairperson Babalwa Ngonyama had supplied false reasons to the UCT senate for the early departure of Professor Lis Lange, who was the deputy vice-chancellor for learning and teaching.
According to Ngonyama, Lange chose to leave of her own accord for personal reasons.
However, Lange denied this, saying Ngonyama had effectively pushed her out and told her that vice-chancellor at the time, Mamokgethi Phakeng, didn’t want her to continue as her second in command.
Ngonyama resigned from her position last month.
‘Council has been sgtrongly divided’
Gwangwa said in court papers that she only found out about Lange’s departure during a “closed discussion”.
Last month, Gwangwa brought an urgent court interdict over a special council meeting which was to discuss removing her as a member of the council.
“On the basis, there had been a failure to comply with the peremptory provisions of the Institutional Statute and that due processes as prescribed in the university’s code of conduct had not been observed,” the court papers states.
Prior to the hearing of the matter, Gwangwa and the institution reached an agreement that the council would no longer proceed with the motion to remove her from the council. The matter was struck off the court roll, with costs to be argued at a later stage.
She said:
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said the university had taken note of the court matter.
“UCT will respond accordingly through the relevant legal processes and will reserve its rights. The university remains open to considering alternative mechanisms in an attempt to resolve the matter amicably,” he said.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
