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The Struggle for the Soul of a South African University

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The Struggle for the Soul of a South African University THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF A SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY The University of KwaZulu-Natal: academic freedom, corporatisation and transformation Nithaya Chetty and Christopher Merrett Copyright © Nithaya Chetty and Christopher Merrett All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without express written permission from the authors. ISBN 978-0-620-58600-9 Printed in South Africa For Anashree and Christine Contents Abbreviations.................................................................................................................i Foreword.......................................................................................................................ii Introduction..................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: What is a true university?.................................................................. .........7 Chapter 2: Subversion of a well-governed university.................................................. 33 Chapter 3: An unresearched merger............................................................................48 Chapter 4: A state of academic serfdom......................................................................66 Chapter 5: The myth of transformation and the re-racialisation of the university.......84 Chapter 6: The serfs strike back.................................................................................109 Chapter 7: The collapse of university discourse and the silence of the complicit.......123 Chapter 8: The UKZN gulag.....................................................................................135 Chapter 9: In the court of national and international opinion...................................147 Chapter 10: The battle for Senate in a disciplinary university....................................162 Chapter 11: The soulless university.............................................................................192 Epilogue.................................................................................................................... 205 Bibliography...............................................................................................................210 Index..........................................................................................................................220 Abbreviations ANC African National Congress ASC Academic Steering Committee BAAF Black African Academic Forum CAFA Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa CCMA Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration CCS Centre for Civil Society CHE Council on Higher Education COMSA Combined Staff Association COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions DSLT Deneys Schreiner Lecture Theatre FXI Freedom of Expression Institute GAFC Governance and Academic Freedom Committee GBV gender based violence HEIAAF Higher Education, Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom HEQC Higher Education Quality Committee IAC Institutional Audit Committee IHEMG Independent Higher Education Monitoring Group NEHAWU National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union NRF National Research Foundation NTESU National Tertiary Education Staff Union RMS Risk Management Services SACOS South African Council on Sport SAJS South African Journal of Science SANEF South African National Editors Forum SASA South African Sociology Association SASCO South African Students Congress SAUVCA South African University Vice Chancellors Association SRC Students Representative Council UCT University of Cape Town UDW University of Durban-Westville UJ University of Johannesburg UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal UN University of Natal UNSU University of Natal Staff Union i Foreword Academic freedom is guaranteed in South Africa’s Constitution, an important gain of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to a democracy. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution gives special emphasis to artistic and scientific freedom, media freedom and academic freedom, strongly suggesting that the document’s drafters considered these freedoms to be at the core of freedom of expression. It is unsurprising they felt this way. Universities play a key role in a country’s intellectual (re)production. They produce the next generation of scholars, while providing spaces for free enquiry and exploration. Without the freedom to teach, write, publish and think, they would find it impossible to play this role; institutions would produce mindless automatons and become cheerleaders for powerful public or private interests. However, academic freedom should not just be about the freedom to teach and research, it should also guarantee the ability of academics to speak out publicly on issues of importance, including those that affect their own institutions. In fact, the freedom to debate and critique conditions for academic work should be as integral to academic freedom as freedom of teaching and research. Freedom of expression will become a dead letter for academics if it is not upheld in the very backyards of the institutions that employ them and, as knowledge producers, these institutions should lead by example to protect basic rights and freedoms. Threats to academic freedom are often understood in their conventional sense, namely as threats that are external to the university and that generally emanate from governments. This book is about how academic freedom can be threatened, not from without, but from within. It documents a series of incidents that occurred at the University of KwaZulu-Natal during the vice-chancellorship of Malegapuru William Makgoba, incidents that showed the spaces for academics to debate and critique the university’s internal operations were being closed. These incidents culminated in disciplinary action against one of the book’s authors, Nithaya Chetty, who was then an associate professor of physics at the university’s Pietermaritzburg campus, and against maths professor John van den Berg. They were accused of bringing the university into disrepute for criticising its most senior managers in the media. The university’s management vigorously ii denied clamping down on academic freedom, arguing that this freedom was being used as a fig leaf to hide attempts by staff to prevent transformation. It is an undeniable fact that, twenty years into its democracy, many of South Africa’s universities are still grappling with the legacy of apartheid. While student bodies are increasingly reflective of the demographic make-up of the country’s population, staff demographics remain skewed towards white people and men. A report into transformation led by the University of Cape Town’s Crain Soudien documented a litany of grievances from black staff and students who feel alienated, especially in the historically white universities. Sexism also remains rife. Furthermore, many university departments remain inwardly focused, failing to utilise the freedoms they do enjoy to contribute towards transforming the societies in which they operate. These twin problems suggest that, on balance, universities remain insufficiently transformed. The authors of this book make strong arguments for academic freedom to include the principle of academic self-rule. Certainly, self-regulation can prevent academic work from becoming corrupted by political or economic interests that may not necessarily have the pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of society as their primary objective. Yet, at the same time, in an untransformed academic body, academic self-rule can maintain existing institutional arrangements, cultures and practices, preserve existing pockets of privilege and reproduce existing, unequal social relations. Clearly these tensions have been very much at play at UKZN. This book describes attempts by the university’s leadership during Makgoba’s tenure to effect ‘transformation from the top’, pursuing a narrow racial approach to transformation, and combining this transformation project with a corporatist agenda that sought to turn the university into a world-class institution. Yet, according to some of its critics, this agenda ignored development challenges in the university’s own backyard. Called ‘transformative managerialism’ by Tembile Kulati and Teboho Moja, this form of transformation involves addressing the legacy of apartheid by creating equity of access to higher education, while responding to the pressures of globalisation to create a high skill/high wage, globally competitive service economy. The problem with this form of transformation is that it risks turning universities into toy telephones for local and global elites. This book outlines the attempts by academics, including the authors, to resist this form of transformation. It traces their attempts to redefine how transformation iii was being understood and practised, refusing to fall into the false binaries that required them to choose between the ‘transformation camp’ and the ‘academic freedom camp’. It also documents the university’s increasingly authoritarian response to its internal critics, including the authors of this book. Academic freedom and transformation are two sides of the same coin. Without academic freedom, academics are unable to contribute to the generation of socially useful knowledge, and the academic enterprise becomes practically worthless. In fact, transformation without freedom is no transformation at all. However, without transformation, academic freedom risks becoming a freedom enjoyed by the
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