UB academics call for Fako�s head
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday December 8, 2016 17:07
The union delivered a 36-point petition to UB Council chair, Parks Tafa, listing grievances and complaints against the local institution’s principal head.
UBASSSU demanded that Tafa set up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate a broad range of acts allegedly committed during Fako’s tenure. The union wants Fako to resign within a week of the petition delivery and for processes for his replacement to start swiftly in accordance with the University Act and Council guidelines.
Delivering the petition at the institution’s Administration Block, UBASSSU secretary general, Aobakwe Banamile said the institution’s current leadership is guilty of unilateral decisions without consultation. He accused Fako of disregarding the practice of “the mutually respectful, annual address of staff” to update on the implementation of the university’s strategies in fulfilling its mandate. Banamile further said Fako had “unceremoniously and questionably” suspended the Revised Organisation of the Academic Structure (ROAS).
“This notwithstanding, the vice chancellor has engaged in or attempted to carry out outstanding restructuring of the University, such as the Centre for Continuity Education where he was stopped through litigation, against the implementation of the en masse transfers of academic staff to various faculties and centres,” reads the petition.
Another bone of contention is “management’s refusal to release the report of the Review of the University of Botswana general conditions of service to the union”.
“Unions remain in the dark as regards to the methodology, data, analysis, findings and recommendations of the report which informed the review of general conditions of service that are integral to employees’ contracts of employment,” the petition says.
The vote of no confidence is also rooted in Fako’s administrative and decision-making style, which the union calls “arbitrary, authoritarian and clouded with secrecy”.
This, the union says, is much to the prejudice of the affected individual staff members whose “welfare, professional interests and career paths are disrupted” together with the “effective functioning of the departments and units they belong to”.
The union claims its representatives at Council have been barred from sharing information on decisions with their constituents due to a “misconstruction and misapplication” of the confidentiality clause, making their representation futile.
“The memoranda of information from Secretary to Council which communicates Council decisions are not shared timely, fully and in good faith.”
Academic staff also decried the shrinking student numbers and their implications for the security of their jobs, which they said appeared to be a non-issue for management. They alleged that they were only hearing from the media on the source of the dwindling intake because as key stakeholders in the UB mandate were not engaged in shared governance. “Delayed admission of students into UB programmes due to bottlenecks and inflexibility in the administrative process is an indictment of the performance of the vice chancellor and his team,” further says the petition. It is against this backdrop that UBASSSU questions what they call Fako’s “unprocedural contract renewal and re-appointment to a second term of office” this April.
“His contract renewal and re-appointment was in violation of the policies, procedures and guidelines stipulated and approved by the University of Botswana Council itself. The said controversial appointment defied all forms of rationality and evidence in front of the appointing authority, much to our consternation as the union,” reads the petition cover letter.
“UBASSSU’s well-considered view expressed at its Biennial Elective Congress on 8th November 2016 is that it is time for the University Council to act resolutely to arrest the downward spiralling of the University of Botswana under Professor Fako’s leadership as its Vice Chancellor,” Banamile said. Accepting the petition, Tafa said he had heard the many issues the union raised.
“We have listened very carefully and received the petition itself. It’s very detailed and we will respond in the fullness of time.
“I assure you no one will be disciplined for delivering this petition. That has never happened,” he said.
He told academics that they would hear from the Council, cautioning that this would not likely be before Christmas. Fako was unavailable for comment by yesterday evening.