Lecturer fired for nepotism claims

Senior history lecturer Robert Shell has been fired after a dispute with South Africa's Rhodes University.

Dr Shell, director of the population research unit at the university's East London campus, accused Rhodes of not fulfiling its contractual obligations, of lack of transformation and of nepotism -claims that it denies strongly.

Rhodes said in a statement that the head of a confidential disciplinary hearing, professor emeritus Ivan Schafer, ruled that Dr Shell had brought the university and its management into disrepute and was guilty of "serious misconduct amounting to breach of contract with the university".

The dispute began in mid-1999, when Dr Shell and a colleague wrote a report about staff appointments and retrenchments at the East London campus. Dr Shell claimed the university employed white relatives of staff while retrenching black staff members.

An ad hoc committee investigated the accusations and, in October 1999, reported finding no evidence to substantiate them. Instead, it recommended disciplinary action against the authors for making unfounded allegations that could harm the university.

The dispute between the two parties continued until the hearing when Dr Shell was fired.

Dr Shell has said he will pursue all avenues of appeal and the case could go to the courts. The two parties also dispute ownership of National Research Foundation-funded equipment and three computers containing data from Dr Shell's research into HIV-Aids. Rhodes does not want the data, but has the NRF's endorsement that the equipment belongs to the university.

The Rhodes branch of the National Tertiary Education Sector Union said it "deplored" Dr Shell's dismissal, describing it as authoritarian labour relations that could cause "fear and insecurity" among staff.

Although the complaints Dr Shell made were flawed, the union said it should not have gone to formal disciplinary proceedings and liberal universities had to foster debate and dissent. "At times, this will mean management has to cope with individuals who have high skill and high will."

Rhodes vice-chancellor David Woods said: "This matter has nothing to do with academic freedom whatsoever.

"Dr Shell has been dismissed for repeatedly making malicious, unfounded allegations against the university and various people within and outside the university."