Cape Town - The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has done an about-turn on the expulsion of its council chairman Professor Brian Williams and the suspension of council member Songezo Maqula.
Williams, however, considers the matter “unresolved” until he has consulted with his legal team.
“There never was a case against us. The allegations were always false. The university administration and council were aware that there were no facts.”
UWC’s council withdrew the sanctions against the duo late on Thursday.
The university council's decision to oust the members had been interrogated in the Western Cape High Court with the pair claiming they’d been shown the door for trying to arrange a meeting between the council and #FeesMustFall protesters.
On Thursday, Alec Freund, senior counsel for Williams and Maqula, told the court when the university council dealt with the matter last year, it failed to follow “due process” as set out in parts of Section 27 of the Higher Education Act.
Freund said he would prove Williams’s UWC in an about-turn on Williams, Maqula sanctions expulsion and Maqula’s suspension were “unlawful” and the “council did not have the power” to sanction the two.
Maqula, who had before his suspension been elected to council by the Convocation, a body consisting of the university's graduates and academics, said he was still shocked.”I have never, ever, heard of a person being suspended for just requesting a meeting.
“And, what makes my case even more bizarre is that I was suspended twice; on November 26, 2015, and then I was suspended again in June this year,” he said.
The applicants’ lawyer poked several holes in the UWC council’s argument that Williams and Maqula had failed to act in the best interests of the university when they attended a #FeesMustFall gathering in October last year.
Maqula said he and Williams had attended the mass meeting on October 31 last year in the hopes they’d be able to broker a peace deal.”Instead we were accused of agitating violence. They (the council) said there was evidence in the form a video.”That was bizarre because there has never been any instance where we agitated violence.
“In fact, when we went to campus on October 31, we were there to, along with the religious leaders, preach messages of peace.
“It was an opportunity to say to students that 'whatever grievances you have, you need to raise them because it is a democratic space, but we need to protect the institution'.
“We wanted to find a peaceful resolution to the impasse. But that was denied,” Maqula said.
In his clients’ defence, Freund said “it would have been appropriate” for the university to convene a special council meeting as universities grappling with the #FeesMustFall crisis had been doing the same. ”There’s nothing absurd or unreasonable that request,” Freund said.
The court case continues On Friday.
*For more on this story, see the Weekend Argus on Saturday and Sunday. From page 1
Cape Argus