Johannesburg - Unisa has remained mum on reports that it plans to take on review the recent independent assessor’s report that made damning findings against the institution.
Unisa chancellor Thabo Mbeki revealed in a recent briefing that Unisa was going to put the recent independent assessor’s report on review.
During this briefing and while in the company of the vice-chancellor Professor Puleng LenkaBula, Mbeki spoke out against the scathing report, which found that the country’s oldest university was plagued by issues of maladministration and mismanagement, as well as supply chain problems.
The report, which was leaked to the media in May, was compiled by Professor Themba Mosia, who was tasked by Minister of Higher Education and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, to look into the affairs of the university.
It subsequently made damning allegations against LenkaBula amid a range of key maladministration and governance issues. The report flagged a series of issues, including a growing culture of fear, intimidation and bullying, instances of maladministration and financial irregularities.
Other issues included human resources failures, a fragile and troubled ICT environment, poor student services, academic malpractice, the leaking of confidential records and questionable management and council decisions.
Since then, calls for Unisa to be placed under administration have been growing, with the DA joining calls for Nzimande to act on the recommendations of the assessor.
However, this week Mbeki slammed the report, saying it needed to be challenged publicly as it had made these allegations against the institution publicly. He said the report had drawn certain conclusions about the university publicly.
“We are taking it (the report) on review because we do not agree with what it says. It does not talk about the university, but talks about something else. Because it was in the public domain, we thought it would be better to take it under review. We have written to the minister. This is the view of the council and the VC that this is necessary because the matter is in the public domain and can be debated publicly. This is what the court said, and this is what the university said,“Mbeki said.
He added that taking the report on review would allow the university to make sense of it.
“From this point of view, we want to communicate the message about this 150-year-old university as it is. We don’t want people to believe that this is the truth about the university. So we want it to be aired in the public domain.“
Earlier this month, Nzimande said he would intervene at Unisa once he had considered the response of the university’s management to the report.
He confirmed that he had received the report and had shared it with the council of the university, requesting responses as required by the Higher Education Act. However, since then, Nzimande has not made his position known on the future of the institution.
Attempts to get an official comment from the university were not successful at the time of publication, with the university’s communication team saying it would consider responding to the media inquiry.
“Please note that your email has been received and we are attending to it,” reads the university’s response to The Star.
The Star