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Edwin Naidu
After much initial optimism as Unisa’s first woman vice-chancellor, the troubled tenure of Professor Puleng LenkaBula is about to be interrupted by the appointment of an administrator by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande.
The Minister announced on 4 August 2023 his intention to appoint an administrator in terms of Section 49B of the Higher Education Act, 101 of 1997, which empowers him to appoint an administrator and dissolve the council at Unisa.
The decision, which could spell the end for LenkaBula, whose term began in January 2021, follows damning reports by Independent Assessor Professor Themba Mosia and the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) on Unisa, Chaired by Dr Vincent Maphai.
In a statement, the Ministry said that Nzimande is satisfied that the Independent Assessor’s report reveals financial and other maladministration of a severe nature which affects the effective functioning of Unisa.
The Ministerial Task Team (MTT) conducted an Independent Review of UNISA’s ‘mission drift’ – which had massive implications for the financial sustainability and future of UNISA.
The MTT also made a rigorous assessment of how the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its associative disruptions and shifts will affect many aspects of the academic mission, academic programmes, markets and operating model of UNISA.
The 316-page report by Mosia recommended that Council and management at Unisa be axed, stating that appointing an administrator is in the best interest of Unisa and higher education in an open and democratic society.
The Minister has allowed the UNISA Council to make written representations to him within seven days of receiving his letter.
Nzimande has written to Unisa Council Chairperson, Mr James Maboa, on the 4th of August 2023, of his intention to appoint an administrator.
The latest on the goings-on at Unisa is a far cry from the optimism shown by LenkaBula in December 2020 before her taking up the hot seat. In her first interview, she told me that she wants Unisa institution to reclaim its space as an innovative leader in distance and open education and make sure the university contributes to South African and Africa-wide goals on sustainable development.
On top of that, she wants to ensure the university is receptive to gender transformation for all women of colour who were marginalised in the past.
She said that she was mindful of the enormity of the task facing her but ready for the challenge as the only woman in 148 years to head one of Africa’s most prominent universities and the institution that 1946 pioneered tertiary distance learning.
“When I was called by the chair and deputy chair of the council after they decided to check with me whether I would be able to, in principle, accept, I thought, okay, this is just a general progression into what I would have tried, or wanted to apply for—which is the VC role. It only dawned on me two or three hours later when they announced publicly that I had been appointed,” she said.
“I thought, oh no. This is more than what I thought I had raised my hand for, in the sense that now the expectations and the burden of being the first will haunt me or invite me to be purposeful around my duties and responsibilities. So yes, it is rather… overwhelming now,” she said.
Almost three years later, it has gone wrong LenkaBula – ironically as South Africa begins to celebrate National Women’s she looks set to follow the University of Cape Town’s former vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng as the second high-profile casualty.
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