Fazel Khan fired from UKZN, possibly in part for his work with Abahlali

fazel khan

ALL DOCUMENTS FROM THE HEARING, ALONG WITH THE KAMPALA DECLARATION, ARE NOW ATTACHED BELOW

Also see

The Fazel Khan solidarity website is at Fazel.Shackdwellers.org. New articles are being loaded on this site as they come in and there is also an online petition here.

Fazel Khan was fired from UKZN yesterday. He had been charged with ‘bringing the university into disrepute’ after answering questions put to him by the media. He almost got fired a few years ago at UDW for organising for HIV/AIDS treatment access against a denialist vice-chancellor and for arguing that the (then proposed) merger between UDW and UN would be a neo-liberal cost-cutting exercise dressed up a ‘transformation’. That time he escaped the axe but yesterday it fell.

The questions that were put to him by the media related to the fact that he had been removed from a photograph and the text of an article in the University newsletter on a film that he and Sally Giles had made on Abahlali (all reference to Abahlali was also removed from the article but that never became an issue). He argued that his excision from the picture and the text were political and related to his role in the 2006 UKZN strike.

Just before the hearing started he was also charged with leaking a document which showed that unions and management had agreed that there was an intimidatory climate at the University. The disciplinary process was dragged out over 7 months. At one point it was put to Fazel that the charges would be dropped if he informed on others involved in an alleged conspiracy to embarrass the university management in the media. Of course there was no such conspiracy and of course he refused the invitation to make up evidence against others to save himself. Immediately after he was fired the vice-chancellor threatened him and warned him not to speak to the media or to the Freedom of Expression Institute about his dismissal. He also warned that other academics involved in the ‘conspiracy to bring the university into disrepute in the media’ would be fired soon.

Fazel was denied legal representation at the hearing, which was conducted behind such heavy security that he himself struggled to get to it (his lawyer had to be smuggled on to the campus in a car boot), and which was compacted into just two days making it very difficult to engage with all the facts in sufficient detail. He conducted his defence with dignity and integrity making a strong case for his right to be critical of the university management. One of the witnesses was personally intimidated right outside of the hearing by finger wagging Makgoba with a bunch of security guards standing behind him….

All of the lawyers and other experts who have looked at the transcript of the hearing and the judgement have said that the judgement has very little relationship to the evidence brought to and examined at the hearing. In fact the chair couldn’t even spell Fazel’s name correctly. Fazel will now challenge this decision in court where he has been told that a victory, although it will be long in coming and expensive, is more or less certain.

He was recently elected to lead the combined negotiation team representing all 4 unions and, in a final irony, on the very same day that he was fired the fruits of his work were delivered to all staff – a 7.2% increase, plus a notch and back pay till January plus increases in housing, medical allowances and a 3 weeks shutdown over Christmas.

In December 2005 the Mercury reported that Makgoba had told Fazel, in front of 3 witnesses, that Mayor Mlaba had phoned him to say that there was NIA evidence that Fazel and 2 other academics at UKZN were guilty of ‘inciting shack dwellers’. Makgoba said that he would present this evidence to the University Council with a view to charging the 3 academics. When Jacob Zuma visited the campus last year he sought a meeting with union officials and told them that the union would have to accept that ‘those academics embarrassing the government will have to go’. Second hand reports were also received of similar comments from City Manager Mike Sutcliffe and MEC for Safety & Security Bheki Cele. But it is not clear whether or not Fazel was in the end fired because of his work with Abahlali or because of his key role in the UKZN strike last year (or both). However it could well be that his work in the largest workers’ union on the campus, a union that he headed at the time of his dismissal, was enough to make his presence on the campus unacceptable to the management.

Fazel has received tremendous support from the workers in his union, from his colleagues in his school, from his former and current students, from many prominent academics in Durban and ‘Maritzburg and around the country and internationally and, of course, from Abahlali baseMjondolo. There has been considerable international support which has even extended to a planned demonstration in Istanbul and film screenings and discussions in San Francisco. Plans are also just starting to be made for screenings of Fazel’s film on the 2006 strike on campuses around South Africa to be followed by discussions on academic freedom.

Fazel Khan will have to take what income he can find to provide for his four children but he will continue to study, learn and teach in the University of Abahlali baseMjondolo. Qina mhlali!

For more details, updates, general information on the struggle for academic freedom and to sign the online petition in support of Fazel please visit the Fazel Khan solidarity site

Update: Fazel’s new email address is ihashiliyadlala@gmail.com

To learn more about UKZN read Ngugi’s brilliant new novel – Wizard of the Crow. No prizes for guessing who is Big Ben Mambo…