LSU in emotional abuse of female acting Senior Assistant Registrar scandal

Lupane State University has been caught in yet another emotional harassment scandal of a female employee who is allegedly crying foul that the university authorities are harassing her through flimsy charges.

She is being accused of failing to produce in time the minutes of the Campus Development Committee (CDC) meeting some time in December last year.

The development comes a few days after another female staff member accused the Vice Chancellor Pardon Kuipa of sexually harassing and victimising her for turning down his advances.

Personal Assistant to the Bursar (names withheld) recently lodged her complaint over the harassment to the university through the Ncube- Tshabalala Attorneys' lawyer Nikiwe Ncube citing the VC as her assailant.

In the latest case the Acting Senior Assistant Registrar Central Service Ntombizenhla Ncube is said to be in a fix by Kuipa for allegedly failing to capture the minutes of a meeting at the university and produce them to the authorities in time, in what critics say is a sexual related issue.

The university through deputy Registrar Human Resources and Administration Thamsanqa Donga with instructions from the VC wrote a memorandum dated April 14 2021 with the subject - Neglect of Duty, to Ncube asking her to submit a report on why she failed to execute her duties as expected.

"The Human Resources Section is in receipt of a report from the VC's office through the Registrar's, that you grossly neglected your duties as the Secretariat of some University Committee. It is stated that you failed to produce minutes within a reasonable period and only did so four months later," Donga wrote.

"Your actions grossly affected the operations of the University as it delayed the implementation of some Committee recommendations and the relay of critical information to some Committees of Council. Your actions or lack of them, are regarded as serious acts of misconduct as prescribed in the Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006 (Model Code). You are to show reasons why the University should not proceed and charge you for violating some Sections of the Code, particularly Section 4 (g) which reads "….substantial neglect of his or her duties."

Donga advised Ncube to therefore submit a report outlining the reasons why she took four months to produce the record of proceedings for a Committee meeting (minutes), on or before Friday 16 April 2021 at 1600 hours.

"Failure to avail the requisite information as asked will leave the employer with no choice but to charge you as alleged," Donga wrote.

In a report to Donga on the delayed minutes, Ncube noted that the CDC meeting was held on 2 December 2020.

"As the Secretariat I took the minutes of the meeting. The first draft of the meeting had been typed by 17 December 2020. The University closed on 19 December 2020 and opened on 4 January 2021. When we opened the University, the nation was on lockdown due to the rising cases of the Covid-19 pandemic up to 4 February 2021," Ncube wrote.

"Though I had sent the draft minutes for proofreading to the Acting Deputy Registrar (Academic Affairs) on 13 January 2021 he could not print anywhere since he preferred the hard copy. Most of the offices were closed, there were no Secretaries, though I had come specifically for sending minutes to the person who could proofread them for me and before sending them to the VC."

Ncube wrote that the lockdown was then extended to 1 March 2021 and this is the time they were busy with looking for venues for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences examinations.

"I was always up and down looking for venues. I printed copies for proofreading. After they had finished, I sent a soft copy to Howard Ndhlovu (director of physical planning) to also proofread for me since it was his committee. After Ndhlovu had gone through the minutes and was satisfied, I waited for the Vice-Chancellor who chaired the meeting, to come back from leave and go through the minutes," Ncube wrote.

"I remember talking to his personal assistant if I could send the minutes to the CDC Chairperson or wait for the VC to come back to office. I did not want to by-pass him since he had chaired the meeting. That is why I later thought the proper thing was to wait for him to come back to the office. Yes, I agree that the minutes took long to reach the VC's table, but minutes could not be sent to him without giving them to other people to proofread for me, I was afraid of being humiliated."

Ncube noted that since she was acting in that position, it was like training for her and due to that she could not send the minutes without them being proofread. She added that she did not purposely neglect her duty but the university was closed and she was afraid to give other staff the minutes before they reach the VC who chaired the meeting. She said she thought the minutes would be needed for a diarized meeting on May 20 2021.

Signing on the minutes of the 28th meeting of the CDC virtual meeting held on December 2, 2020, the VC noted that he wanted Ncube to be charged for neglect of duty.

"I want the secretariat to be charged for neglect of duty. Minutes for a meeting held on December 2 2020 have only appeared on my desk for correction on April 31 2021" wrote VC mentioning the date that does not exist.

Ncube confirmed that she was being accused of neglect of duty but declined to comment further.

"Where did you get that from? Yes this is happening, but I am not at liberty to comment about it," she said.

LSU spokesperson Zwelithini Dlamini said he spoke to the Registrar Jairos Makunde who said Ncube had taken too long to submit minutes to the CDC chairperson for signing and it took from around December to around the end of April this year.

"He says this was extra ordinarily too long and unreasonable hence the CDC chairperson was concerned. Then the person who was asked to deal with the matter wrote a letter of admonishment. Precisely it was a warning letter that she must not do it next time," Dlamini said.