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Rhodes University is facing financial distress and wants to cap salary increases at 5% in order to remain viable. But support service workers want an increase that is in line with inflation and wage negotiations have deadlocked.
Like several other such institutions around SA, Rhodes’ financial crisis appears to have been triggered by the zero-percent student fee increase for the 2016 academic year. In an internal memorandum last week, vice-chancellor Sizwe Mabizela said that a single percentage increase in the salary bill was equivalent to R4m and that the current offer thus translated into an additional R20m in salaries. “We cannot increase this budget further without placing the future of this university and the academic project in serious jeopardy," wrote Mabizela. But the university on Friday moved to dispel any suggestions that it was about to retrench staff. A spokesperson said it was premature to begin to speculate about retrenchments based on the internal memo, which sought to highlight a need for continued internal engagement and creative thinking by stakeholders, “not to create a volatile situation and instil fear about job losses.”
- Based on reports at BusinessLive and The Citizen
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