The allegations have cast aspersions on the institution’s reputation, raising questions about its management and academic integrity. They span from Tshephang Mabaila’s academic fraud, former vice president Slumber Tsogwane’s Masters' degree credentials, favouring students and the Vice Chancellor fearing for his job. However, in an interview with Mmegi this week, the VC stated that this is a vicious attack against him and the university. Norris stated that it is people from the university that are feeding others with wrong information to soil his name and the university’s reputation. “This is all malice from within (the university). There is a case of Mabaila, which was perpetuated from within,” Norris said. Norris indicated that there is a faction of people from the university that is against reforming and turning the institution into a high performance organisation, which is paddling the malice. “This stems from the High Performance Organisation (HPO) transformation because we require that you must do research, publish at a reputable organisation and also one must hold a Doctor of Philosophy, but some people are against that in the university,” he said
He revealed that it is lecturers that are against this transformation as he realised that the university is falling behind in education. “We are lacking on teaching, the number of PhD holders is low and the number of post graduate students is low. And there is a group of lecturers that is against this,” he complained. On Mabaila’s case, Norris shared that the university dealt with the matter in the best way that they could and followed the right channels. He added that he was not even part of the panel that presided over his case. “On February 28, 2024, I wrote to Mabaila telling him the decision that was taken by the disciplinary committee of which I was not even part of. Mabaila even received the letter and signed it on March 8, 2024,” Norris said. Furthermore, Norris shared that it was him again who was in the forefront reminding faculty heads to block Mabaila from registering as he is serving a suspension. “I even sent an email to the Deans and Faculty Administrators instructing that Mabaila should not even register for the academic year on July 18, 2024, a period when registration normally takes place,” he said. Amidst all of these allegations about him not dealing swiftly with the Mabaila case, Norris stated that it was even a shocker to him at first to learn that the latter was a student at the university. “I didn’t even know that Mabaila was a student here because this institution is big. Additionally, I am not even surf social media so I really would not know,” Norris lamented. In a case involving the credibility of Tsgowane’s and Sonny Serite Masters’ degrees, the VC said the university would never give anyone a qualification without meeting the requirements of being conferred one. “The thing that former VP did not accumulate enough credits is all a lie, he passed those modules. I don’t influence anything; am I that powerful? Everything is approved by the Senate not me,” shared Norris
