It is perplexing that the University of KwaZulu-Natal is engulfed in an endless cycle of conflict, writes Imraan Buccus.
In this instance it is neither the students nor the staff. Instead, battle lines have been drawn inside the institution’s executive and its governing council.
Five senior people in the tier immediately below the vice chancellor, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, face severe sanction that potentially involves suspension and/or disciplinary action.
However it eventually turns out, there are profound personal and professional implications for all concerned. Quite how things could deteriorate to that level is impossible to fathom. A narrative that has gained momentum in these two decades of the democratic era is that of “management style”.
Emerging as we have from a highly contested struggle for freedom, the activist psyche has been imbued with a deep desire for consultation, collective decision-making and demonstrable fair play. When that test fails, it is interpreted as poor management style signalling a collision course.
And indeed the parties at UKZN have collided in a potentially destructive formation. Dr Van Jaarsveld is a relative newcomer in the executive echelons of higher education notwithstanding his tenure at the National Research Foundation and a university dean.
Even though one is not familiar with his earlier political choices it is fairly safe to assume that he has no intimacy with the activist psyche. A fair proportion of the five against whom he is pitted have been through their political baptism either as anti-apartheid activists before 1990 or in bruising transformation politics since, but most likely in both eras.
That context is significant in unpacking the nature of the grievance. With commentary such as this, it is improper to pronounce on the merits or otherwise of either case. Suffice to say that as a public institution of higher learning the university must consider it open season for process questions that have inevitably arisen in this debacle.
One of the core questions is how it is that such a carefully constituted council under the stewardship of a politically astute chair could allow the situation within the executive to deteriorate to the base levels that are now playing themselves out in the public domain.
The impulse to appoint a commission of inquiry is almost reflexive in our democratic era. Commissions consume mountains of paper, endless hours of testimony and a not insignificant slice of the public purse. One cannot gainsay their utility to the governors but it is fair to ask questions about impartiality, credibility and transparency. Further, one of the hallowed principles in law is the audi alterem partem rule or hear the other side.
The council of UKZN will be well served to explain exactly who was interviewed, beyond the affected five.
Members of the university council would have committed themselves to good corporate governance in agreeing to serve on the statutory body. There is also considerable discomfort that two of the five are exceptionally well published black woman academics whose crime was to speak up. They have made an immense contribution to the academy and to post apartheid leadership at tertiary institutions.
It is common cause that black women who scale a plethora of oppressions to earn the respect of their academic peers through ratings are in rather short supply in the country. The council of UKZN will be well served to respond to that perception. However decisive the council believes itself to be, this matter is not going to go away quietly. UKZN is a credible public institution of higher learning which the university council holds in trust for the benefit of the wider citizenry. To continue on this polarising path is a grave disservice to its students, scholars and the wider community. It’s also worth noting that the five worked with the vice chancellor (and delivered) for 15 months since the now controversial letter.
If there is one lesson we learned from Codesa, it is to lock all the hot heads in one room and not let anyone out until they have figured out a solution. That is probably the most decisive instruction that the council can give its management at this time.
* Buccus is senior research associate at Asri, research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN and academic director of a university study abroad programme on political transformation.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.