Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and the SA Student Congress (Sasco) are calling for the removal of Unisa Vice-Principal for ICT Mathabo Nakene.
This comes after a series of ICT-related glitches which have seen students battle to submit assignments and exams online.
Last week, the university issued an apology following another glitch that affected the submission of assignments and exams.
“Unisa apologises to students in respect of technical challenges that were experienced during some online exams that took place on 24 and 25 October 2022. Students sitting for affected sessions were granted extension or grace period to accommodate the inconvenience experienced,” the University said in a statement.
However, both the ANCYL and Sasco said they were tired of excuses by the university management which continuously fails students.
“We are disgusted by the ineptitude and clumsiness by Unisa ICT department. The continuous system malfunction has become a norm in the university’s computerised tuition tools.
“The current sitting principal of ICT is useless to the core. It cannot be correct that paying stakeholders must continue remunerating an ornament without ideas. We cannot be presided by individuals who (are) here to decorate strategic offices without a plan of action. It is high time that the VP exits the office and create space for capable individual to take over,” Sasco secretary Sizwe Sixaba said.
Sixaba also blamed the university management for failing to resolve the issue of student data which he said contributed to students not being able to submit their assignments.
The ANCYL also called for Nakene’s head, adding that the recent apology by Unisa was not good enough.
ANCYL chairperson of the Unisa branch David Bopape said efforts to raise issues with the university management had been ignored.
“ANCYL raised these matters to management, but, instead, we were blue-ticked by the VC and management. Many students were unable to submit their exams which affected more than 5 000 students… Therefore given the worsening situation, we are calling for the removal or resignation of the VP of ICT since she is constantly failing to improve the online system which crashes for fun and leads to increasing failure rates,” Bopape said.
In the statement the university said it had communicated with affected students that those who could not proceed their sessions even after the extension their matters would be investigated and corrected.
The Star