Research unit will not be closed

Latoya Newman, The Mercury, 13 August, 2008

THE Centre for Civil Society, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, will not be closed in the near future.

However, the fate of the advocacy organisation remains unclear.

This is according to a statement issued by the centre's director, Prof Patrick Bond, after a meeting with senior University of KwaZulu-Natal officials this week.

The UKZN management has also confirmed that a "reviewed" process to decide the centre's future is under way.

Bond said the announcement of the closure made to centre staff in July had been cancelled.

"The closure of CCS, as dictated in a July 30 statement by deputy vice-chancellor Fikile Mazibuko, has been effectively negated and is now overridden by a genuinely collegial process amongst intellectuals.

"The academic process we now embark upon means that no binding official university decision has been taken, and that fellow scholars will make recommendations about the centre's future in coming days and weeks, in a far more democratic manner where merit, not political ideology, prevails," he said.

Yesterday, UKZN spokesman Dasarath Chetty sent a circular that reads: "It was agreed that the faculty board be requested to consider the Krumm report on the future of the CCS at its meeting today. As a way forward, the board is to be requested to consider appointing a subcommittee which should, in a reasonable time, come up with recommendations relating to the future of the centre."