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Wednesday, September 08 2010 |
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Updates from Univ of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban |
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Written by Patrick Bond
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Friday, 30 March 2007 |
Hi comrades,
Sorry to be quiet from this end, we've been immersed in too many things to do much more, right now, than pass along some announcements and press coverage of struggles underway here.
Cheers,
Patrick
http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs
***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2007
WHO: Students threatened with exclusion
WHAT: Picket against financial exclusions
WHEN: 12h20 Friday March 30, 2007
WHERE: Outside Student Union Building, Howard College Campus, University of
KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
CONTACT: Liv Shange 082 4074959
Thabo Maile 084 3082071
Socialist Student Movement Press Release
The Socialist Student Movement (SSM) is deeply worried by the spate of financial exclusion which has quietly being effected at UKZN campuses in the past few weeks up to today. So far, at least 101 students have been excluded, whereof 70 are from Westville campus and 31 from Howard College. In these two campuses, another 549 students are still awaiting the outcome their appeal against financial exclusion, according to the latest lists. However, by March 30, the temporary access to LAN’s, library and campus in general will be cut off for these students. At an urgent meeting today, students resolved to embark on daily pickets according to the following: Howard College Westville Starting Friday March 30: Starting Monday 2 April Venue: Outside Student Union Building Venue: Quad Time: 12h20 (if nothing else is announced) Time: To be announced
The UKZN merger has meant a conscious roll-back of the gains that Westville students, primarily, had won through hard struggles. The counseling- and appeals process, which allowed students to register with nil if necessary, has been abolished. The entrance requirements have been raised so that even fewer learners from the previously excluded background schools can reach UKZN’s high points. Student debts are being privatized; sold to merciless private debt collectors outside any democratic control. The management under Vice-Chancellor Makgoba wants to make the UKZN a “corporate” institution in line with neo-liberal restructuring of education world-wide. It is no coincidence that the same management which excludes students is chucking out staff union leaders and academics who dare speak their mind.
- The new “registration appeals” process allows no one to register with nil, instead students are demanded to pay for example R13 000, says Thabo
Maile.
- Students are forced to look for menial part time jobs, compromising academic quality. Students on appeal are humiliated; for example being called “visitors” and forced to write exams in a separate section of the venue.
- We urge the media to break the silence on this issue, come and hear our
stories!
***
www.mg.co.za
UKZN academic on the ropes
David Macfarlane
24 March 2007 11:59
The troubled University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has suspended a senior academic and prominent unionist, barring him from all its campuses pending a disciplinary enquiry into four charges of misconduct.
The charges against Evan Mantzaris, professor of sociology and president of the Combined Staff Association (Comsa), follow the findings of a board of inquiry headed by advocate Johann Gautschi that the university appointed in November.
The board’s terms of reference noted that UKZN “has experienced negative media publicity over 18 months, which is alleged to be the result of a concerted effort of and campaign by two members of staff of the university, possibly assisted by others”. This campaign allegedly included “defamatory anonymous emails”, “reckless comments to the media”, “forging of staff signatures” and “leaking of confidential information … to the media”.
The terms of reference also specified “misconduct by an individual member of staff”, including sexual harassment of a female staff member and “irregularities” concerning examinations.
Gautschi issued a notice to the university community last month, saying the board had presented “a confidential interim report” to the UKZN council on February 16. Without naming Mantzaris, he said “evidence received by the board shows the existence of a persistent and orchestrated campaign calculated to destabilise the university and targeted at senior members of its management and staff”.
Gautschi said the board had recommended disciplinary proceedings against “a member of the academic staff” arising from sexual harassment, negligent performance of academic duties and false and defamatory documents sent to the media”.
He also said the board’s main report, to follow its interim one, “will deal with allegations against other individuals who have not yet had an opportunity to respond”.
Mantzaris has shown the Mail & Guardian a letter written to him earlier this month by deputy vice-chancellor Peter Zacharias, which expands on the charges. Zacharias wrote that “it is clear to me that the evidence against you is not frivolous, but is overwhelming” and that “the university is … justifiably concerned about your continued presence at the workplace”.
The first charge alleges that Mantzaris has “compromised the university’s integrity with respect to its postgraduate examination system”. This includes producing examination reports “of poor quality”, not properly supervising postgraduate candidates, and submitting dissertations for examination that were poorly presented or unready for submission.
The second charge alleges Mantzaris engaged in “a concerted campaign” to generate adverse publicity about the university’s refusal to give left-wing activist Ashwin Desai a research post last year. The third alleges Mantzaris “produced and published defamatory letters about the vice-chancellor [Malegapuru Makgoba] and other members of staff”. The final charge relates to alleged sexual harassment.
Zacharias wrote that Mantzaris had to be excluded from the workplace so that he did not come into contact with possible witnesses at his disciplinary hearing, or have access to trade union facilities he allegedly used in his publicity campaign against UKZN.
Makgoba told the M&G that he could not comment as the matter was sub judice. Mantzaris denied all the allegations, saying they “are spurious and will never hold in a court of law. This is a direct attack not only on me personally, but against a union that has asked serious and unanswered questions on the merger, governance issues, autocratic management and the high salaries of management.”
On Tuesday, a Freedom of Expression Institute statement said the second and third charges against Mantzaris “are of particular concern as they relate to his freedom of expression” and urged the university to exclude them.
National
FXI says 'erosion' of free expression at KZN varsity
Johannesburg, South Africa 24 March 2007 10:33
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has expressed concern over the suspension of a professor at the University of Kwazulu-Natal after he criticised management.
"We are concerned at the erosion of free expression rights at tertiary academic institutions," FXI director of operations Na'eem Jeenah said on Friday.
"In terms of the South African Constitution, academic freedom is an instance of freedom of expression, and is protected in terms of this right."
Sociology professor Evan Mantzaris was suspended earlier this month.
He is also chairperson of the university's staff union, the Combined Staff Association.
Mantzaris is accused of criticising the university's management and engaging in a campaign to bring negative publicity to the institution.
He allegedly also produced and published defamatory letters about vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba.
Jeenah said the university had a history of suppressing freedom of expression.
The suspension of the professor was "part of a larger process in which the space for free expression and academic freedom at that university is being narrowed".
Jeenah added: "If the university is to move beyond this controversy, it needs to create maximum space for debate about its future direction." - Sapa
***
UKZN staff association chairman strikes back
March 08, 2007 Edition 3
Mercury reporter
PROF Evan Mantzaris, the Chairman of the University of KwaZulu-Natal's staff association, Comsa, yesterday hit back at the authorities over his suspension from office.
In a statement issued in his "personal capacity", Mantzaris described his suspension as "an undisguised attack on personal and collective freedom of opinion and expression, and as a violation of my fundamental human rights".
Mantzaris was suspended on four allegations of misconduct, including compromising the integrity of the university.
He said it was alleged that he had brought the university into disrepute with regard to the "unbanning" of sociologist/activist Ashwin Desai.
He said that, in terms of the suspension, he was not allowed back to his office or on to any of the five UKZN campuses. Nor was he allowed to keep contact with any UKZN staff.
In a wide-ranging statement, Mantzaris claimed that, among other things, it was not he but the university's principal who had brought the institution into disrepute in the Desai case.
He added that the university's woes were evident from its latest regi-stration figures, which, he alleged, its management was "reluctant to provide to the (university) community".
***
Mantzaris suspended from UKZN
March 07, 2007 Edition 1
Amelia Naidoo
The President of the Combined Staff Association at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, Prof Evan Mantzaris, was suspended last Friday on allegations of misconduct.
He will remain on suspension pending the outcome of a disciplinary inquiry.
Mantzaris and fellow Comsa member Fazel Khan are being investigated by the Gautschi board of inquiry, set up last November, on allegations that they leaked confidential reports to the media and brought the university into disrepute.
Khan will act as the association's president until the completion of the inquiry. He is also awaiting the outcome of an inquiry, which is expected to be released next month.
The university's Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Pete Zacharias, told Mantzaris that he had read the Gautschi report and had found its allegations to be "extremely serious".
Zacharias outlined four allegations of misconduct against Mantzaris, which included compromising the university's integrity with respect to its postgraduate examination system.
Mantzaris declined to comment yesterday, saying he would prefer to submit a statement when he had a "cool head". - Amelia Naidoo
***
Conscience and soul of the nation
Legal battles, subterfuge, clamping down on information and censure for those who break the in-house rules at the University of KwaZulu-Natal have highlighted a greater issue - the upholding of academic freedom at tertiary institutions. Amelia Naidoo loo
March 16, 2007 Edition 1
Among the greatest apostles of academic freedom are surely Nelson Mandela, who once ordered the reinstallation of old South Africa colonial artworks in the name of freedom of expression, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent most of his adult life in a Siberian prison because of his passion for truth and academic freedom.
Both these men fought life-and-death battles for the greater truth, believing that without it a country has no "soul or conscience". However, academic freedom is often a difficult journey even in liberal societies.
Closer to home the University of KwaZulu-Natal presents an example of fractures appearing in the hallowed firmament of academic freedom. Since last year some academics have been singled out for their outspoken views on the governance of the institution, with punitive measures taken against those who don't tow the line.
Among those targeted for their "inappropriate behaviour" in speaking out against the university was Rhodes University sociologist Prof Jimi Adesina, who condemned a gagging order placed on the university community during its industrial strike last year.
Delivering a lecture at Howard College recently he spoke on academic freedom and reminded UKZN academics of their social responsibility as intellectuals.
Although he was not barred from speaking, his lecture was not announced on the university's internal notice system, as is normally the case with other lectures.
Commenting on the lack of advertising, university council member Prof Nithaya Chetty, in a letter to the UKZN executive, said: "This should begin to raise alarm bells to all of us about the type of university we are building.
"That we were not able to publicise an academic lecture by the president of the South African Sociological Society (Adesina) is shameful to me."
In the recent defamation court case between university spokesman Prof Dasarath Chetty and Adesina, (Nithaya) Chetty believes the university chose to side with the "suppression of free speech.
"Another challenge to free academic decision-making was about moves to restrict departments from appointing lecturers of their own choice, like sociologist and activist Dr Ashwin Desai.
In another matter related to the much-publicised industrial strike the institution has targeted two union leaders, Prof Evan Mantzaris and Fazel Khan, who, among other things, commented to the media on university issues.
Tension
Mantzaris and Khan face disciplinary action that could see them dismissed from the institution.
Mantzaris has been suspended from campus and banned from having any contact with university employees or any access to the campuses.
The tension at the university is palpable. Hardly anybody is prepared speak to newspapers on the record or openly challenge management for fear of being singled out and punished, or losing a job.
"Although our academic freedom is assured in our constitution, the reality on the ground is that people are scared," remarked one lecturer. There was a fear of being labelled a renegade, dissident or resistant academic by the vice-chancellor, he said.
Academic freedom has also become an issue at the University of Pretoria.
There, Freedom Front Plus student members were recently banned from conducting a so-called "affirmative action" cake sale where white, Indian, and coloured students were charged more for cup cakes than their black counterparts.
Although the exercise was described as a "satirical comment of affirmative action in practice" the university promptly stopped the cake sale.
Freedom of Expression Institute spokesman Na'eem Jeenah said preventing students from expressing themselves through such exercises was a violation of Section 16 of the constitution.
"No matter what one might think about their motivation,their cause or their methods the right to freedom of expression often means the right to express a viewpoint that is contrary to the dominant viewpoint."
He said UKZN Vice-Chancellor Prof Malegapuru Makgoba's remarks a couple of years ago likening the behaviour of some white males to that of baboons in a newspaper opinion column also fell within the realm of freedom of expression. So did the claim that a fellow UKZN academic was a racist, said Jeenah.
It was difficult to prove defamation in our courts, he said, and the onus to prove such a charge rests with the individual pursuing the case. Even if a statement was found to be defamatory, a judge could rule in favour of the defendant if it was true or in the public's interest.
But this is not a localised dilemma as international academic institutions face the same pressures.
Academics
Academics at the 800-year-old Oxford University are in revolt over plans by its new vice-chancellor to radically change its governance and the working conditions of its academics.
Academics are angered by New Zealand business leader Dr John Hood's attempts to replace collegiality and vocation with line management. Interestingly, the institution is where Makgoba studied immunology. He appears to hold similar corporate ideals as Hood.
In the United States, a University of Colorado professor, Ward Churchill, came under fire for his unpopular assertion that the attack on the World Trade Centre was justified because of America's foreign policy. Although many called for him to be fired for "overstepping the bounds of acceptable discourse", others defended him on the principle of academic freedom, even if they disagreed with his message.
In its true spirit academia, the very heart of learning and vigorous inquiry, is about voicing concepts and opinions that may not always be popular or part of mainstream thinking. And one of the evergreen challenges is for academics to continue in their quest for knowledge and its dissemination in the face of skepticism, ridicule and downright hostility.
"Academic freedom is a very sacred thing. It is the bedrock on which any university is based. If you mess with it you mess with the very essence of what makes a university special," commented University of Pretoria Dean of Education Prof Jonathan Jansen.
In the words of controversialist and preacher Cardinal Newman, a true university or college is a place "in which the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its equal in some antagonistic activity, and its judge in the tribunal of truth.
"It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge."
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