The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) has requested Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande to include the federation in his department’s newly launched Ministerial Oversight Committee on the Transformation of South African Universities.

The Minister on Wednesday announced that University of KwaZulu-Natal Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Malegapuru Makgoba would chair the committee, while other members would hail from the University of Fort Hare, the University of the Witwatersrand, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the University of the Free State, the University of the Western Cape and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union.

“We believe the Minister would make a strategic error if he continues with the current structure of the committee. Although we are glad that trade unions are involved, we believe the current composition is not representative of university staff holding positions at our universities. Saptu [the South African Parastatal and Tertiary Union, Fedusa’s union organising in higher education] should be represented,” Fedusa general-secretary Dennis George said in a statement.

He added that by not including all parties, the committee could become irrelevant, which would compromise the results of its investigation, as well as the eventual impact of its recommendations.

“We are an inclusive union and we have proven ourselves to have truly transformed.  We represent academics and support staff at universities and our members represent the demographics of our country,” Saptu general-secretary Ben Van der Walt said.

Among the committee’s responsibilities would be to study and evaluate the effectiveness of the transformation frameworks, charters, polices and strategies of all universities, as well as their yearly reports and to develop a transformation charter and benchmarks for the university sector as a whole.

It would produce a yearly report on policies and practices that impact on transformation at universities, which would also set out achievements and challenges.

Further, the committee would propose a reporting mechanism to track universities’ performance in terms of the set institutional and national transformation targets and benchmarks, while best practices would have to be identified.

It would also monitor progress on transformation at public universities and advise the Minister on policies aimed at countering racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, while promoting social cohesion.