Nzimande concerned court not moving speedily on Unisa matter

Higher education minister Blade Nzimande has expressed his displeasure at the Pretoria high court ordering him to withdraw his notice of intention to place the University of South Africa (Unisa) under administration.

This court order came after an urgent high court application brought by Unisa’s council on Thursday after Nzimande said he intended to announce his final decision on Friday.

In a statement on Friday, Nzimande said: “I remain concerned that though the order granted by Mr Justice Adams on August 24 has noted the urgency of this matter, the court has not demonstrated any sense of urgency in finalising this matter.

“It is now more than a month that transpired and the matter has not yet been heard by the court, however the court is able to hear an urgent application by Unisa. To me, this resembles an inconsistency in the application of the principle of 'urgency' or prioritisation of issues by the court.”

Nzimande’s decision to place Unisa under administration follows reports from independent assessor Prof Themba Mosia and the ministerial task team chaired by Vincent Maphai.

Nzimande said he was satisfied Mosia’s report revealed financial and other maladministration of a serious nature and serious undermining of the effective functioning of Unisa. However, judge Harshila Kooverjie's Friday ruling stated Nzimande’s notice of intention was “in breach” of Adams' order.

Adams had ordered Nzimande not to act on the recommendations of the Mosia report until two separate applications challenging it are finalised. One application was brought by the chair of Unisa’s council James Maboa, who sought an order to interdict Nzimande from appointing an administrator.

In a separate application, vice-chancellor Prof Puleng LenkaBula sought an order to review and set aside Mosia’s report. Kooverjie ordered Nzimande “to immediately cease and desist from taking any steps to publish and implement the notice or to take any steps of whatever nature to implement the notice.

“The minister is interdicted from taking any action in respect of his notice and is ordered to pay the costs.”

Nzimande said he would abide by the ruling of the court, but pointed out he felt the court system was being used to curtail his executive authority as provided by the Higher Education Act.

"[The] minister believes in the supremacy of the constitution, the law and the doctrine of the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. He hopes that this should not be one of those instances in which this important constitutional principle is violated,” read the statement from Nzimande's office. 

“The minister wishes to clarify the issue of what was before the court. What was before court was not the review of his intention to appoint an administrator at Unisa nor the recommendations of the independent assessor.

“The court interdicted the minister from taking a decision and implementing it pending the finalisation of the interim interdict that the council had instituted.

“In that matter, the council and vice-chancellor seek to interdict the minister from implementing his decision pending finalisation of their application that seeks to have the report and recommendation of the independent assessor reviewed and set aside.

“This therefore means that the court did not consider the merits of the interim interdict and the review applications.” 

Nzimande called on deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba for “an expedited special allocation of the hearing”.

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