Universities and other institutions of higher education were once thought of as being places where young people could hone their critical thinking and where knowledge, integrity, and social responsibility could be fostered.
Most of them have lovely catchphrases to market themselves: “Where leaders learn” and “together in excellence”, where “thinkers, creators and changemakers” come together to find ways to make the world better.
But the halls of our academic institutions are anything but hallowed. They are under attack by the rotten, corrupt and violent.
Tenders are rigged, budgets are pillaged, and students are shot in residences by those charged with their supervision and care.
Top managers are assassinated as factions battle for control of the resources.
It’s ugly.
That rot is part and parcel of the state capture which has come so close to tanking our democratic project
Vice-chancellors are hemmed in by bodyguards, paid for by the public purse. This is money that should be spent on improving these institutions to benefit young people. The academic project is the last thing on anyone’s mind.
An exhausted and frightened Walter Sisulu University vice-chancellor Prof Rushiella Songca last week pleaded with government to act against these criminal elements targeting universities.
Her deputy, Sinethemba Mpambane, was gunned down in Mthatha in June.
She and her top management each have a security detail usually reserved for country leaders.
But, why did anyone ever think that our universities would be above the fray when it came to those who pillage and plunder all public institutions?
Eskom, Transnet, the Post Office and almost every other state-owned institution have been hollowed out, usually by those within these institutions.
The Independent Development Trust, charged with the “delivery of critically needed social infrastructure programmes on behalf of the government” is the personal piggy bank of its CEO Tebogo Malaka — now under the spotlight for allegedly trying to bribe a Daily Maverick journalist to stop his investigations into her chicanery.
This corruption doesn’t happen in isolation and without consequence. We face constant electricity and water outages, a collapse in roads, shipping, rail and other infrastructure vital to the economy.
Did we expect that the universities, largely funded by the public purse, would stand isolated, grand and above all the smut and greed that has destroyed much bigger enterprises?
The vice-chancellor’s plea for government to step in and stop the rot at universities will be in vain. That rot is part and parcel of the state capture which has come so close to tanking our democratic project.
The Zondo Commission report provided a detailed road map to address these issues. Three years later and little has been achieved.
Until that systemic change is implemented our universities, like every other thing in which the state has an interest, will be fair game to criminals.
Daily Dispatch
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