[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Another UKZN expression controversy

[Patrick Bond]

The Witness

UKZN academics under fire

           07 Aug 2008
           Sharon Dell

           THE futures of two highly-respected Pietermaritzburg 
academics hang in the
           balance following an announcement on Wednesday that they face 
internal
           disciplinary procedures.

           University of KZN vice chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba 
reportedly announced at
           Wednesday's senate meeting that after seeking the advice of 
senior counsel,
           disciplinary action would be instituted against head of 
mathematics on the
           local campus Professor John van den Berg and Professor 
Nithaya Chetty,
           current president of the South African Institute of Physics.

           Makgoba apparently did not elaborate on the nature of the 
charges.

           Both academics have spoken publicly about their concerns for 
the future of
           academic freedom at UKZN. Chetty resigned from senate and 
council earlier
           this year.

           Van den Berg and Makgoba clashed recently over the vice 
chancellor's alleged
           attempts to block from the senate agenda a submission on 
academic freedom
           authored by Science and Agriculture faculty members. The 
submission makes
           critical observations about the university's management 
culture and notes
           that threats of litigation against academics have caused 
'widespread
           censorship' and a 'Soviet gulag mentality'.

           The furore around the submission received coverage in the 
local and national
           press. Van den Berg aired the debate on the university's 
online discussion
           forum in February and noted that Makgoba had threatened to 
take disciplinary
           action against him for defamation.

           At a senate meeting in February, Makgoba allegedly accused 
Van den Berg of
           'racism, cowardice, insubordination and lack of academic 
productivity'.

           The dispute over the sequence of events relating to the 
submission was the
           subject of a report commissioned by former Education minister 
Sibusiso
           Bengu, then the university's council representative to 
senate. Wednesday's
           senate meeting apparently chose not to endorse those 
recommendations of the
           Bengu report that related to possible punitive action against 
Van den Berg.

           The group of academics calling themselves the Black Academic 
African Forum
           (BAAF) reacted negatively to a statement issued ahead of 
Wednesday's meeting
           by staff union Ntesu (National Tertiary Education Staff 
Union) raising
           concerns about factual inaccuracies in the Bengu report, 
particularly as
           they relate to Van den Berg's conduct, and defended the right 
of academics
           to criticise management in the press.

           In the first of two similar statements released by BAAF, the 
forum accused
           Ntesu of 'promoting rudeness and racist behaviour of a member 
of senate,
           under the disguise of academic freedom'.

           The Ntesu statement said: 'We decry the continuing selective 
abuse by
           management of UKZN, and their representatives, of 
confidentiality clauses in
           order to level the accusation of bringing the university into 
disrepute
           against staff'.

           Makgoba has contended that all senate matters are confidential.

           In a written response, advocate Pushpa Naidu of the 
university's labour
           relations department said answering questions put by The 
Witness would be a
           breach of the 'code of good practice' as stipulated in the 
Labour Relations
           Act.