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The Walter Sisulu University was literally bankrupt, according to a report by the National Assembly’s Basic Education Committee tabled in Parliament today.
The report follows a visit by the com-mittee to several universities and Fur-ther Education and Training (FET) colleges in the Eastern Cape.
The committee said it was extremely concerned that the university was operating on a deficit of R135 million “due to poor planning and the exploitation of resources for individual interest by the previous management.
It noted that the university’s liabilities exceeded its current assets by R356 million and its current reserves were critically low, the university is literally bankrupt.
The committee said that since the appointment of the Administrator Professor Lourens van Staden in November last year some stakeholders such as the unions and SRC believed that the university’s state of affairs was deteriorating.
Some of the major allegations raised included the excessive use of consultants, a conflict of interest in the companies appointed to render services to the university, irregular appointment of sen-ior managers and the lack of engage-ment between the Administrator and university stakeholders.
The committee called for issues relating to conflict of interest to be investigated.
In its report, it also noted that the demand for financial assistance at WSU
far exceeded its supply, which resulted in the NSFAS allocation being spread too thinly to as many students as possible.
It said that 82% of student funding came from the NSFAS allocation as the majority of students came from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The committee said the Higher Education Department had allocated R310 million in December last year from the National Skills Fund which brought huge relief.
The report also points out that the university has reached its carrying capacity in terms of student population on the campus, and that it required R1 billion to address the infrastructure backlog.
(Source: Metro Minute - to subscribe mail metminutes@iafrica.com)
