DHET appointments aim to bring stability

THE Cabinet has given the green light for three senior appointments to help bring stability in the national Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) but vacancies at lower levels remain a concern.

And, to add to its ongoing challenges over personnel, the department has to start the search for a new head.

The minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology that the appointments would bring stability. But, he also announced that the tenure of Director-General Gwebinkundla Qonde, who was appointed to the post in September 2011, would end in August, this year.

The vacancy vacuum in the department has been compounded by severe budget cuts, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, thwarting its ability to deliver on its targets as laid out in its annual action plan, last month.

Recently, the department has stayed afloat despite having as many as five senior vacancies, of which only three have currently been filled.

The Cabinet has approved the positions of the chief financial officer, Pretty Makukule, Sam Zungu, deputy director-deneral (DDG) for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, who started on May 1, 2021, and Nolwazi Gasa, DDG: Planning, Policy and Strategy.

Another DDG posted at the interview stage for Community Education and Training (CET), but the matter was now with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), and there were only technical issues being finalised, which hopefully, Qonde said, would be resolved soon.

The vacant post for the DDG for University Education arose after Diane Parker retired at the end of January. The post has been advertised and candidates are soon to be short-listed.

Nzimande told Parliament that Qonde’s post had already been advertised. The advert has closed.

The department intended to ensure that it closed any potential gaps between the outgoing and an incoming DG.

The minister expressed concern that there were still several posts in the department that remain vacant, but was hopeful that the stability at the top would ensure that they speedily fill the open posts at lower levels.

Regarding the other vacancies in the department, Lulama Mbobo, the DDG for Corporate Services, told the parliamentary committee, that there was reprioritisation under way, though there is not yet any pressure in filling the vacancies that had been identified. The department plans to automate some of its business processes and implementing systems.

In his presentation before Parliament, the outgoing DG, Qonde, said as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the department’s budget had been cut by R20.083 billion over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), impacting negatively on departmental operations.

The cutbacks are as follows: R4.969bn in 2021/22, R6.429bn in 2022/23 and R9.422bn in 2023/24. These, will have a severe impact on the work of the department.

He said priority areas included in the revised strategic plan, included developing a skills strategy to support government’s efforts towards mitigating the impact of Covid-19 and the initiatives towards economic and social recovery; managing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic at the institutional level; and the funding of eligible students through NSFAS and working towards a financial aid system that will be inclusive of “missing middle” students.

Minister Nzimande concluded the DHET’s presentation by saying that as much as budget constraints had affected every department, and resulted in a revision of targets, there were areas where the department thought it could do more, but could not include them in the targets.

He said the Cabinet had requested a study on funding to be presented in June, and that a team was expected to start work on it, shortly.

In a statement, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology, Philly Mapulane, described the budget cuts as “very depressing” and that of great concern, was the risk that funding continues to grow at the expense of university subsidies, and if this trend is maintained, student funding will overtake the subsidies to universities.

Meanwhile, Nzimande has been urged to tap into the skills of retired academics to address the brain drain in the country’s national department of education.

A former top South African vice-chancellor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told University World News that though he did not always agree with former DDG Parker, because sometimes she failed to stand up to the minister when required, she was skilled and understood the higher education system and would be a loss to the department.

“I think people are worried about her departure. In the department, there’s far too many vacancies that are not filled fast enough. It has also become a much more complicated ministry, given the tension between the DG and the minister.

The professor said if he was minister, he would draw on the skills of a number of top higher education professionals, including the likes of founding chief executive of the Council on Higher Education and former Rhodes University vice-chancellor, Saleem Badat, former Nelson Mandela University vice-chancellor Derek Swart and Mvuyo Tom, a South African doctor, administrator and academic, the vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare from 2008-2016.

“If I was him. He’s got skills available to him. I would use it up but he won’t.”

Another education expert, a Pretoria researcher, said while it is not a technical requisite for one to be able to carry out bureaucratic work within the department, either as a DG or DDG or even chief director, what is needed, broadly in government, was strategic thinking and leadership. Having the management ability to lead in a very complex environment was imperative. “That is really what you need. And of course, experience, and the necessary educational requirements which in some cases, is just a postgraduate degree.”

At a technical level, he would not say it is a requirement for individuals to have worked within higher education. He noted that, especially in higher education, you need people who at least have a knowledge of the sector.

An example, within the sector itself, he said, was the experience of Dr Theuns Eloff, who became the vice-chancellor of North-West University in 2004 ruling for a decade. “He was really not respected within the sector, because he was considered not to be an academic, coming to lead an academic institution. I know for a fact that he was not really respected.”

Referring to the success of “outsider” Professor Ihron Rensburg at the University of Johannesburg, the academic said he (Rensburg) made his name working in the ’90s at national level as part of the national education crisis committee, worked briefly within the university sector when he was in charge of education policy needs, before joining the department as DDG. “He had the gravitas required for the role.”

To succeed in the department, rather than it being really a technical skills requirement, the academic insisted that understanding the culture of the higher education sector, its complexities and identities, since universities are autonomous, is crucial.