{"id":240310,"date":"2022-10-17T18:18:12","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months\/"},"modified":"2022-10-17T18:18:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:18:12","slug":"how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months\/","title":{"rendered":"How UCT council chair ignored calls for meeting for months"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The University of Cape Town\u2019s vice-chancellor and Council chair have been engulfed in controversy. Archive photo: Masixole Feni<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UCT council chair Babalwa Ngonyama has been accused of persistently frustrating attempts to discuss the resignation of Lis Lange, a former deputy vice-chancellor and other senior staff members.<\/li>\n<li>Leaked correspondence between council members describe a \u201csystematically thwarted\u201d four-month long attempt by a cohort of council members to discuss a governance crisis at the university.<\/li>\n<li>The correspondence claims that Ngonyama\u2019s \u201cmost prejudicial and incompetent chairing\u201d stymied a June special council meeting, which she cancelled due to a purported lack of information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>UCT council chair Babalwa Ngonyama faces allegations that she has for months ignored and frustrated requests for a special council meeting <span>to discuss the resignation of former deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning Lis Lange, the numerous senior staff resignations, and broader governance issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These claims have surfaced in correspondence between Ngonyama and other council members, obtained by GroundUp.<\/p>\n<p>In an<a href=\"http:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/letter_to_chair_of_council.pdf\"> 11 September letter<\/a> to fellow council members, Shuaib Manjra records all the attempts that had been made to prompt Ngonyama to hold a special council meeting. A first request was made on 25 May, and numerous others followed a special council meeting on 20 June that was adjourned by Ngonyama.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/appendix_1_special_council_meeting_chronology_of_events_september_2022.pdf\">appendix<\/a> to the letter provides a timeline of the council\u2019s correspondence.<\/p>\n<p>Currently both Ngonyama and Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng face <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-10-03-dark-days-accusations-of-capture-and-governance-instability-rock-uct\/\">allegations<\/a> of misconduct surrounding Lange\u2019s resignation. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.uct.ac.za\/article\/-2022-10-15-councils-decisions-on-recent-developments-at-uct\">statement<\/a> from 15 October announced that an independent panel will be established to investigate Lange\u2019s resignation, as well as \u201cmatters related to executive relationships and resignations within and beyond the UCT executive management team\u201d. A report is due by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>The letter from Manjra, distributed to council members, states that \u201cthe chair has assumed the role of gatekeeper, feeding selective information to council members, and withholding crucial information\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It says that Ngonyama has \u201cdeliberately, and by design, consistently delayed responding to our correspondence; and when she does, she does so at the last minute in order to both frustrate and filibuster processes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>According to the appendix to Manjra\u2019s letter, after an \u201cinexplicable\u201d delay in response to the 25 May request for a special council meeting, a special council meeting was finally held on 20 June. This meeting was described as unprocedural and as \u201caided and abetted by the most prejudicial and incompetent chairing\u201d. The meeting was ultimately adjourned by Ngonyama, as she claimed that there was a lack of information on the agenda items.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous attempts to resume this meeting were stonewalled by the chair, according to the correspondence. A special council meeting was finally scheduled for 8 September, but this was cancelled on 5 September by Ngonyama. Again, she claimed that there was an apparent lack of adequate documentation provided on the agenda items.<\/p>\n<p>Ngonyama sent a message to council members claiming that she \u201casked the proposers of the special meeting to provide appropriate documentation for a resumed meeting. However, they have not yet done so. There is now too little time to circulate a revised agenda for the special meeting that had been rescheduled for this Thursday \u2026 and consequently, the meeting has been cancelled\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But this essential documentation was sent \u201cweeks prior\u201d, according to Manjra\u2019s letter. He called Ngonyama\u2019s attempts to block the special meeting from happening as \u201cprejudicial\u201d and questioned the chair\u2019s \u201cobstinate reluctance to proceed with this meeting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/documents\/special_council_motion_september_2022_final.pdf\">A motion of censure<\/a> against Ngonyama was also sent to council members, requesting:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>an apology for the disrespect shown to both the substance of the concerns expressed in correspondence related to this Special Meeting, as well as to the character and motives of the signatories to the Special Meeting request;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>a commitment to continuing in the role of Chair of Council with respect for and recognition of the fact that it is not the Chair of Council\u2019s role to govern on Council\u2019s behalf.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Council proceeds with discussion of the papers submitted for the June 20 meeting, as edited in subsequent submissions, with no disruptions, and with impartial chairing.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The letter also noted that the \u201cfissures and fractures which currently characterise council should never compromise good governance and undermine democratic, consultative, cooperative, and deliberative decision-making, in the pursuit of a blinkered agenda\u201d. Additionally, it read that UCT\u2019s council is not \u201ca personal club that expects displays of deferential servility; embraces only loyalists; while shunning, censoring, and silencing critical voices\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A special council meeting was finally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.uct.ac.za\/article\/-2022-10-06-report-from-special-council-meeting-of-6-october-2022\">held on 6 October<\/a>. A vote was held to either establish an independent panel to investigate concerns around Lange\u2019s resignation and governance issues, or to hold an internal and human resources-led investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The latter motion was decided on, with the deciding vote cast by deputy chair Pheladi Gwangwa. Fourteen council members who voted for the independent panel came out with a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GvanOnselen\/status\/1578278137925812224\/photo\/1\">statement<\/a> that said the voting process was \u201cflawed\u201d and irregular. The statement also noted that the council members\u2019 requests for a special meeting to discuss the governance concerns have been \u201csystematically thwarted\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This decision to lead an internal investigation has since been rescinded and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.uct.ac.za\/article\/-2022-10-15-councils-decisions-on-recent-developments-at-uct\">independent panel is going to be established<\/a>, according to the university.<\/p>\n<p>UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola did not wish to comment but referred us to the statement of 15 October (linked above) which announced the establishment of UCT\u2019s independent panel. Manjra also declined to comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Cape Town\u2019s vice-chancellor and Council chair have been engulfed in controversy. Archive photo: Masixole Feni UCT council chair Babalwa Ngonyama has been accused of persistently frustrating attempts to discuss the resignation of Lis Lange, a former deputy vice-chancellor and other senior staff members. Leaked correspondence between council members describe a \u201csystematically thwarted\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-240310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/how-uct-council-chair-ignored-calls-for-meeting-for-months.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}