THE University of South Africa (Unisa) has described the announcement of being placed under administration as premature.
Minister of Higher Education Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande issued in the Government Gazette No. 49582, Vol.700, that he has placed the university under administration for a period of 24 months, with effect from 27 October.
But the university said it remains firm on the view that the minister’s announcement is premature and in contempt of the court order of Friday, 6 October, that interdicted him from placing the university under administration.
Unisa spokesman Tommy Huma said the same order reaffirms the earlier order of Justice Adams, which ordered the minister not to take any decision pending the finalisation of the interdict application by Unisa and the minister’s undertaking not to take any decision until the application to review and set aside the independent assessor’s report would have been heard.
“This matter has not been finalised and is still before the court. The university is also of the strong view that the announcement of the minister’s decision at a time when our students are in the middle of the examinations is ill-timed and insensitive.
"Indeed, an anti-climax to the fact that the university has just graduated more than 50 000 graduates with six ceremonies still to take place this year,” he said.
Huma said it must be made clear that the university is not fighting the minister and the responsibilities that he has. However, the university is also of the view that all citizens need to be guided by the prescripts of the law of the country.
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“The university has now approached the court on an urgent basis to challenge the minister’s announcement of 27 October 2023. The Unisa management appeals to all stakeholders, communities, especially staff and students, to remain calm and continue working hard to ensure that the academic project remains intact and continues to thrive unabated,” he said.
In defending his move, Nzimande said he made his decision to both dissolve the university’s council and appoint the administrator. He has carefully considered the findings and recommendations of the independent assessor report by Professor Themba Mosia, the responses from the council and other stakeholders, as well as the government’s responsibilities in protecting public interests in the governance and management of Unisa.
“The assessor report followed the report of the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) of August 2021 into the Review of Unisa, which also raised serious concerns about the state of administration and governance as well as the quality and sustainability of Unisa as one of South Africa’s most important universities.”
“The MTT concluded that based on the evidence presented to it, Unisa suffers chronic management failures in many of the key support systems, and the council was the root cause of the problems at the university,” he said.
