Independent Newspapers
Professor Aaron Ndlovu has won his legal battle with the institution and can now keep the millions he was paid during his tenure.
Durban – Professor Aaron Ndlovu, the former head of Mangosuthu University of Technology who was once accused of enriching himself through “unlawful” salary increases, has won his legal battle with the institution and can now keep the millions he was paid during his tenure.
In terms of an order granted by Durban High Court Judge Johan Ploos van Amstel, the academic – who was one of the highest-paid vice-chancellors in the country, earning more than R3 million a year – is also entitled to more than R1.5m from the university for pay and other benefits he should have received while he was under suspension, and before he retired at the end of 2009.
Ndlovu’s suspension came about after an internal inquiry found various irregularities in his conduct during his 13-year tenure, including influencing the granting of several “unauthorised” pay increases to himself. In its claim for more than R10m “overpaid to him in respect of salary and performance bonuses”, the university initially alleged that Ndlovu had acted unlawfully.
But, at the start of the trial, the judge noted, this stance had been abandoned and the case was now that the payments had been made in error because the emoluments committee did not have the authority to increase Ndlovu’s salary and its decisions ought to have been ratified by the council.
The judge, while labelling some of the increases as “startling” and the governance of the university at that time as “leaving a lot to be desired”, ruled the institution had not proved its case. He said it appeared from a schedule prepared by senior director of finance R Ramshaw that up until 2003, most of Ndlovu’s increases had been unremarkable.
But in that year, through two increases, his salary more than doubled from about R55 000 a month to R125 000 a month and by 2005 he was earning more than R3m a year.
“Ramshaw testified that he had recommended this based on a survey that had shown that Ndlovu’s salary was not in keeping with those of principals of other tertiary institutions. The committee agreed… and it also awarded him a performance bonus of R812 500, said to be equivalent to 50 percent of his gross salary,” the judge said.
According to financial statements, compensation to senior management and administrative staff totalled just less than R5m in 2002. The following year – in financials signed off by the chairperson of the council at the time, former mayor Obed Mlaba, and the chairperson of the finance committee, G Redhi – it had shot up to R12m, mainly because of the introduction of performance bonuses for senior staff.
The judge said evidence showed increases for Ndlovu and eight other senior executives were never put before the council for approval or ratification, and the emoluments committee had continued to function until it was abolished in 2009.
“It’s clear that governance of the university by the council in the years up to about 2005 left a lot to be desired. The minutes of council meetings before me do not reflect that the audited financial statements were ever approved by the council. It would appear they were signed by the chairperson and sometimes the vice-chairperson in a hurry and wherever the director of finance managed to find them.
“The council did not seem to concern itself with what the vice-chancellor earned until about 2008 when new members of the council started asking questions,” the judge said. He dismissed the university’s claim, ordering it pay Ndlovu’s legal costs and to pay him the money (plus interest) he was owed for the period June to December 2009. Ndlovu was ordered to repay a loan of R40 000 from the university. – The Mercury
