VUT was in such a state of collapse that intervention was critical, report found

The Vaal University of Technology was in such a state of collapse that intervention was critical to turn around its fortunes.

Leadership, governance and management at the institution were particularly lacking.

This is according to a report by two independent assessors, appointed by then higher education minister Naledi Pandor in May last year.

Their brief was to advise the minister on the source and nature of the problems that had negatively affected the functioning of the institution to the point that it could be said it have become dysfunctional.

Professors Barney Pityana and Rockey Ralebipi-Simela were also tasked with advising the minister on measures required to restore good governance and management at the institution.

In their report — which was published in the government gazette last week but which is dated October 31 2019 — the assessors said that because of poor leadership, governance and management in all sectors of the university, the institution had failed to guarantee quality education for so many young students.

“In other words, the sustainability of the institution was being put at risk,” the assessors found.

The report said a large-scale collapse had occurred and urgent and deep interventions were imperative.

The assessors identified a number of areas that had crippled the institution. These included:

• the manner of the appointment of the vice-chancellor;
• the role of the university council;
• supply chain management problems; and
• the quality of the academic provision at the university.

The report made 13 recommendations, one of which was that the future employment of vice-chancellor Gordon Zide, who it said had been incapable of giving strategic leadership at the university, needed to be reassessed.

However, Zide retired in July last year.

The report also recommended that the current crop of leadership at post levels 1 to 3 must be retired or redeployed, and new critical leadership be found to guide the university into the future.

The report recommended that the selection of a new council must be taken with care.

“Membership of Council must be vetted, with due diligence as well as probity undertaken in order to weed our opportunistic elements from the university,” they found.

In July last year, the assessors issued an interim report to Pandor's successor, Blade Nzimande.

In that interim report, they recommended that Nzimade appoint an administrator for the university, dissolve the council and consider the future of Zide.

Prof Ihron Rensburg has since been appointed administrator.

In their report, the assessors said issues of maladministration, governance, leadership and management has plagued this institution from inception in 2004.

It cited a commission of inquiry which was appointed in 2006, which found that a vice-chancellor was appointed under dubious circumstances and he turned out to be unsuitable for the position he occupied.

Another independent assessor, Muzi Sikhakhane, was appointed in 2012 and he confirmed allegations of maladministration, factions within council and top management, management's failure in dealing with issues of unfair labour practices, corruption and mismanagement of funds and manipulation of procurement processes, among other problems.  

Based on Sikhakhane's report, the minister dissolved the university council and appointed an administrator.

“Now, in M ay 2019, some seven years later, a new team of independent assessors was appointed to VUT to 'conduct an investigation into the governance and management matters at the VUT'.”