Parliament’s portfolio committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology has called for an investigation into the salaries paid\u00a0to senior executives at South African universities.<\/p>\n
In a meeting on Thursday (17 October), the portfolio committee said that the salaries paid to these executives are not proportional to the performance of their institutions in connection with research outputs, throughput rates, and other important factors.<\/p>\n
“The committee will request the minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology to commission an inquiry into the remuneration of universities\u2019 vice-chancellors and other senior executive managers and to report to parliament,” said committee chairperson Philly Mapulane.<\/p>\n
“Universities are public institutions which must be accountable to the people of South Africa, through their elected representatives, about the prudent management of their finances.<\/p>\n
“This question of remuneration of senior executive managers, if left unattended, may become a runaway train and therefore we are calling for action to be taken to regulate it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Salaries<\/strong><\/p>\n A university\u2019s vice-chancellor is akin to a company CEO. He or she is accountable for the leadership of the university as a whole, while also setting out a university\u2019s strategic goals, and ensuring their implementation.<\/p>\n However, the salaries paid to these universities have come under the spotlight in the past, notably as students have protested against the rising cost of tertiary education in the country.<\/p>\n Below BusinessTech looked at the latest available remuneration data fror the heads of South Africa\u2019s top universities.<\/p>\n Data was taken from the latest available annual financial report of each institution (2018 and in some cases 2017), and the total pay presented includes basic salaries as well as employment benefits (medical aid, provident fund, UIF, SDL), bonuses and other allowances.<\/p>\n