Oh, hot damn, UCT.

The #FeesMustFall protests are hardly a distant memory, yet members of UCT’s top management thought it wise to pay themselves excessive performance bonuses for 2016.

As IOL explains, the bonuses were paid despite “student financial exclusions, insourced workers claiming they had not been paid [and] ongoing staff salary disputes”:

At a meeting with staff, students and workers last week, it emerged that staff were told to implement austerity measures, understanding the institution was trying to save money, with even the smallest of cost-cutting measures like reducing their use of photocopying or justifying the use of academic journals in the library.

One would think they would have predicted the repercussions of such a decision, but no:

In the 2016 annual report, vice-chancellor Max Price was paid a performance bonus of R406 782.

He also received R716 724 for “other services”, which includes a payment of R445 019 “being the deemed value for reporting purposes of the house and vehicle provided to the Vice-Chancellor as part of his package as Vice- Chancellor”.

This is atop a salary of R2 558 380.

Deputy vice-chancellor at the time, Professor Francis Petersen, was paid a R317 338 bonus. He is now University of the Free State vice-chancellor.

Human resources executive director Miriam Hoosain was paid a bonus of R247 706.

Visuals below from IOL:

In stark contrast, last year October UNISA announced its staff had forfeited their collective R10 million bonus to fund undergraduate and postgraduate students.

In response to the Cape Times’ query into the matter, Price released a statement UCT’s website, saying in part:

“The most senior members of the SLG (senior leadership group) wished to send a signal to the university regarding remuneration and austerity by voluntarily accepting lower salary increases than the rest of the university.

“From 2015 to 2016, I took a 0% increase, the deputy vice-chancellors (DVCs) took a 2.5% increase and the executive directors, registrar and deans took a 3.1% increase. Other PASS (professional, administrative support and service) staff – in pay classes 5-12 – received a 6.8% increase from 2015 to 2016; academic staff received a 5.8% increase; and clinical staff received a 7% increase.

“In addition, SLG members, like many staff at UCT, donate personally to the institution, many to student financial aid. By example, I donated the full amount of my bonus to UCT – mostly to support financial aid.”

This was “proven” by UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola who said “UCT’s development and alumni department executive director, Dr Russell Ally, whose department deals with donations at the university, confirmed that Price had over the last several years donated and pledged a total of R949 000”.

However…

In a bid to address questions regarding the bonuses, the university claimed all processes had been done in consultation with relevant unions and it was agreed by these unions that it would have been in bad faith to cancel bonuses.

Speaking to the Cape Times, all three unions have since denied the claim.

Wendy Burgers, a senior researcher in the Division of Medical Virology, associate member of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine at UCT, and member of the Staff for Social Justice in Education, said:

“We were outraged (when we saw the bonuses), this is in a context when we are fighting for students not to be financially excluded from the university, where there are a multitude of workers issues.

“There are multiple disputes between different unions and UCT management, and we’ve been told this is a climate of austerity, we have to save money.

“And then we see that bonuses are paid which are double the bonuses from 2015, and we are asking how can that be justified ethically, and isn’t there supposed to be a shortage of money?

“This is not an institution that cares for its staff and its students, and it is an elitist institution, it’s not democratic. We don’t get to decide whether our top management deserve those bonuses or not.

“That’s decided within council. And it is mired in the policies and procedures at UCT which we have to challenge. We don’t believe they deserve the bonuses,” she said.

Deserved, or just another example of abusing power? Be a better leader, Price.

[source:iol]