[Reader-list] academic freedom in South Africa

[Vivek Narayanan]

Hi all,

An ex-colleague and friend at the University of Kwazulu-Natal has 
written  to me asking  to sign the following petition by South Africa's 
National Tertiary Education Staff Union (NTESU) in the interests of 
protecting academic freedom (in this case, freedom to criticise the 
university itself and its management) against an increasingly 
dictatorial and corporatist management, one that comes complete with its 
own deadly and ruthless lawyers.  Please see:
http://petitions.ntesu.org.za/ukzn <http://petitions.ntesu.org.za/ukzn>

For what its worth, my friend asks academics from India and all over the 
world to add their voices to this case: "Hey Vivek. I need your help. 
Something terrible is happening here. Please go to 
http://petitions.ntesu.org.za/ukzn <http://petitions.ntesu.org.za/ukzn> 
and read the documents. Forward to all of your academic friends, 
especially in the Indian universities. This is urgent."

It would be hard to explain the background to this to someone not 
familiar with the management cadre of South African universities, who 
now combine the worst of statist dictatorship and corporatist, 
job-cutting ruthlessness in their unique hybrid style.  It's a process 
that has been going on for a while--I remember it gathering steam when I 
was last there in 1999-- but I have never known my friend to write such 
a note, so it has clearly reached a new level.

To put it simply, two science professors are under sanction, threatened 
with dismissal, for criticising the university.  A report on the case 
can be found here:
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-17-ukzn-meeting-thwarted

But perhaps the larger problem can be best summed up by an extract from 
a recent address given by Nithaya Chetty, one of the professors facing 
dismissal:

"The threats to academic freedom may be summarised as: a lack of public 
understanding and appreciation of the need for academic freedom, a poor 
understanding by academics themselves of their roles and 
responsibilities as demanded by the principles of academic freedom (or 
is it a lack of courage in acting on that understanding?), an 
interfering government hand in higher education that erodes 
institutional autonomy, the increasing corporatised model that sees 
research and education as a business enterprise, and an excessively 
managerialist ethos at our universities."
( taken from: 
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-24-in-favour-of-free-minds )

....and it's precisely because of statements like these that he is being 
targeted.

Vivek