News24 reports that the College of Cape Town’s leadership came under fire in Parliament on Wednesday as MPs grilled them over a deepening governance crisis at the institution.

The leadership appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, where its chairperson, Walter Letsie, noted that MPs had been inundated with complaints about management and leadership failures that have worsened in recent years. College principal and CEO Mhangarai Muswaba told MPs that he was being sabotaged by staff opposed to his efforts to transform the institution. He said: “Reputational damage by some staff members who are sabotaging the principal is true, and we have lost prospective funders who had pledged to work with the college in developing mega projects.”

Muswaba is locked in a long-running dispute with staff members, who previously wrote to Department of Higher Education (DHET) Minister Buti Manamela raising concerns about his leadership. According to Muswaba, instability at the college has been fuelled by officials at the DHET and two deputy principals who, he said, have taken his vision “backwards”. Muswaba was charged with 13 counts of misconduct by the DHET and placed on precautionary suspension after losing a court bid to halt a disciplinary hearing. He later returned to work while proceedings continued. Manamela told the committee he would establish a stabilisation and dispute resolution task team to investigate the crisis.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Marvin Charles at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)
• Read too, Principal disciplined as governance crumbles at Cape Town college, at Sunday World

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