Letter to the General Secretary of COSATU

From:	Johan Beaurain, 23 Lower Collingwood Road, Observatory, 7925.
Tel:	021 4479727 or Cell: 021 0763528901
Email:	johanbeaurain@yahoo.com
To:	General Secretary, COSATU PO Box 1019, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2000
Tel:	(011) 339-4911, Fax: (011) 339-5080/339-6940
Email:	moloto@cosatu.org.za

Dear Comrade Zwelinzima Vavi:

I am writing to you on this special day because I want to appeal to you as an honest individual who carries the community’s interests at heart. And I am writing to you in the hope that you will stand up for the truth.

We should take note of the fact that some of our union leaders in COSATU are also serving on the governing ‘Councils’ of our academic institutions. These worker leaders are thus forming part of those structures that should have the power to decide on the policies that govern these institutions. Amongst others, they also decide on the extra-ordinary high earnings of Vice Chancellors at our state sponsored academic institutions.

Maybe we should think about the role that our union leaders should be playing on the ‘Councils’ of these institutions? A debate on the following considerations could possibly provide us with some additional insight in terms of the role that we would like to see them playing on these structures:

• Does autonomy suggest that an academic institution should be able to manage/govern itself whilst the state should pay the expenses that they incur?
• Why were academic institutions granted this luxury of autonomy in the first place?
• Is it because the state recognised the possibility that in certain instances a disjuncture could exist between truths and the popular beliefs of the people?
• Could an environment that will allow thorough academic interactions contribute towards bridging some of these disjunctures?
• Can we assume that the truth will always automatically be pursued with a passion by those institutions that are mainly funded by the state?
• Was discrimination against truth-seeking scholars outlawed at the time when institutions were given the right to govern themselves autonomously?
• Or did autonomous academic institutions just become another structure that can be manipulated and controlled by those that control the flow of resources channelled towards these institutions?
• Is it our government as well as the governments of the developed nations on this globe that are the main culprits? Or is it the corporate world that has a bigger interest in manipulating and controlling the activities of the academic institutions?

It is no secret that the corporate world makes huge financial contributions towards institutions of higher learning. Some of the impressive buildings on the campuses of these institutions were even named after some of these corporate leaders that paid the bills. But does the manipulation and control end there? Or is it an ongoing thing that never stops? Some of our working people had the opportunity to study at state-sponsored academic institutions. We also had the opportunity to see how the corporate world goes about creating an opportunistic environment at these institutions.

Do you think it will be easier for the corporate world to manipulate the institutions of higher learning if they can provide them with all of the resources they are yearning for? I once heard a saying “He who pays the piper names the tune”. I am of the opinion that the corporate world would enjoy a situation that leaves institutions of higher learning in need of resources. The corporate world will probably also know how to write such expenses off against their taxes.

How will the current environments at our institutions of higher learning impact on the quality of the sciences that are being produced by researchers at these institutions? Would it still be the truth? Would this truth be in the interest of a better quality of life for the people, or would this truth be in the interest of higher profits for the corporate world?

During January 2006, I posted onto the COSATU Web Forum a letter dated 09 January 2006 that is also displayed at the link: aras.ab.ca/articles/Beaurain In this letter I requested Mr. James Ngculu MP to pose three “Parliamentary Questions” to the Minister of Education. Recently I followed this letter up with a “Letter to Parliamentarians” that is also posted onto the COSATU Web Forum.

I will appreciate it if COSATU could make a contribution towards seeing to it that the questions as outlined in my letter dated 09 January 2006 addressed to Mr. Ngculu are posed in Parliament. And comrades, please do not forget to first seek a mandate from your members before you proceed to make your contribution in terms of my request.

Yours truly

Johan Beaurain

cc: Several other individuals and interest groups.