From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za> Date: August 15, 2008 5:53:27 AM EDT Subject: Durban CCS survives, testimonials still welcome, thanks
15 August
To our friends and colleagues,
Many thanks for your interest in CCS during this difficult time. We have overcome at least one major threat, namely the announcement on July 30 by our Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor that we would be closed at the end of the year.
Upon review by our Faculty Board last Wednesday (following a welcome instruction by the Vice Chancellor), and a 33-1 vote, that decision appears to have been reversed.
We think that this is due to an extraordinary outpouring of support in the form of testimonials and petitions, from other academics and civil society groups, local to global. We are still very grateful for such testimonials, which next Tuesday we would like to package and present to the Faculty Board subcommittee that will take the process forward. If you are so inclined, please send a sentence or two to me by late Monday, at pbond at mail.ngo.za, and we will put them on our website as soon as we can: http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp? 2,68,3,1575#handsoff (and do also please send critical feedback, which is helpful as we plan our future).
We will keep you posted with respect to statements that CCS makes to the Faculty Board subcommittee in coming days. Our major plans are to continue with work on social justice, political economy and environment. As you see at http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs ("Events Index"), a few seminars are scheduled in coming days, as well as the monthly Wolpe Lecture panel: on August 28 we introduce Durban civil society to the lawsuit - and its community proponents - that recently defeated Johannesburg Water's prepayment meters, discriminatory services provision and inadequate lifeline water.
Depending upon progress through UKZN's next set of committees, we hope to hire a new Director, as has been our intention since early 2007. Following paternity leave in November, I may continue as director, or CCS may appoint an acting director, until our next phase firms up. We are certain, though, that the comradeship displayed the last week or so will be repaid, as our next period shapes up as one of intense work and more rapid social change.
Amandla, Patrick pbond at mail.ngo.za phone: 27 83 425 1401 skype: patricksouthafrica http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs
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TIMETABLE OF EVENTS RELATING TO THE RECENT THREAT TO CCS
• In March 2007, the School of Development Studies (SDS) Board of Studies requested a University review of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) to establish a firm footing for subsequent developments (including the anticipated end of Professor Patrick Bond’s directorship in October 2007), a review which only began in September 2007, led by Dr Peter Krumm (Department of Physics).
• On 29 February 2008, after hundreds of hours of deliberations, the Krumm Committee issued its Report, which included the conclusion that “Closing down or removing CCS from UKZN does not appear to be an option as it was rejected by all interviewees and panel members. Through its international recognition and standing, CCS has put UKZN on a world map in social science, a position the University dare not risk to lose.” The report is here:
• Until mid-July 2008, no written communications were offered by Dean Donal McCracken, in spite of repeated (unanswered) queries, about the status of the Krumm Committee Report, and no effort was made to address the Report’s analysis or recommendations in the Faculty Board or Faculty ExCo, and no further communications were made to CCS or SDS requesting reactions.
• On July 16, Dean McCracken informed Professors Vishnu Padayachee (Head of the School of Development Studies) and Professor Bond that due to financial reasons the Centre would be closed, but upon notification of new funder commitments and a reserve, acknowledged that "negotiations are still open".
• On July 17, Professor Bond sent Dean McCracken the audited 2007 Financial Statement which showed a healthy surplus of twice the Centre’s annual income or expenditures, as well as an indication of funder commitments to core administrative expenses for 2009-2010.
• On July 23, Dean McCracken sent Professor Padayachee a letter instructing him not to permit further surplus expenditure or fundraising by the Centre for Civil Society, while refusing to reply to ongoing emails from Professor Bond requesting information about the process.
• On July 30, Dean McCracken did not answer requests by Professor Bond for a briefing prior to his own announcement to an SDS and CCS staff meeting, that Deputy Vice Chancellor Fikile Mazibuko had decided that CCS would be closed as of December 31 2008; that existing staff contracts would be terminated at year end (with staff invited to apply for other UKZN jobs); that Professor Bond would resume his tenured SDS chair; and that the “good” projects (unspecified) of CCS would be brought into a “refocused” civil society programme in SDS.
• On July 30, the staff of CCS sent a written Appeal to Dean McCracken and then on July 31 and again on August 4, to Deputy Vice Chancellor Mazibuko, an Appeal which was never acknowledged or answered;
• On August 4, the staff of SDS met and endorsed the CCS Appeal and made their own written request to Professor Mazibuko for a rationale for the closure of CCS, a request that was acknowledged but not answered.
• On August 6, the Mercury newspaper carried a statement - never corrected - that Deputy Vice Chancellor Mazibuko "knew nothing about the alleged decision to shut down the centre". Professor Bond continued to make written requests for written copies of the July 30 letter, a letter which has been kept secret, as well as for the CCS Appeal to be answered, without success.
• On August 8, an official University statement claimed that it was on the basis of the Krumm Committee Report and deliberations with Professor Padayachee that the decision to close CCS was taken – and notwithstanding repeated requests for a public correction of that incorrect information, Pro Vice Chancellor Dasareth Chetty’s office never complied.
• On August 11, Vice Chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba confirmed to Professors Padayachee and Bond that the CCS decision-making process to date was inappropriate, and the “academic voice” was yet to be heard, and that henceforth the correct process would be immediate consideration of the Krumm Report in Faculty Board and in other committees of academics.
• On August 13, the Faculty Board for Humanities, Social Science and Development voted 33 to 1 (with a half-dozen abstentions) to support "the continuation of the Centre for Civil Society", and the Board established a subcommittee to come up with solutions, to report in no more than a month's time.