Professor Norris strikes back in court papers
He who speaks first seems right until his rival comes to cross-examine him!
This seems to be the case as the embattled University of Botswana Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. David Norris, hits back at the disgruntled Law Lecturer, Edwin Makwati, who has dragged his superior to court over a matter involving a student’s academic dishonesty.
Tshepang Mabaila, a law student at the heart of this explosive saga, was found guilty of paying another student P1,500 to sit in for him during exams in the 2022/2023 academic year.
The Departmental Academic Disciplinary Committee (DADC) slapped Mabaila with a seemingly light punishment: a written reprimand, loss of course credits and one semester suspension.
However, according to court papers, in a bold move, Prof. Norris in his capacity as the Vice Chancellor and chief disciplinarian, after satisfying himself that Mabaila was guilty of seven counts of academic dishonesty, endorsed the guilty verdict by the DADC and imposed a stiffer punishment of suspension for four semesters scheduled to begin from the first semester of the 2024/2025 academic year.
That notwithstanding, Makwati quickly marched to court, accusing Norris of overstepping his bounds and arguing that Mabaila’s punishment should have been expulsion, instead of a suspension.
Norris, who has been a target of an onslaught from some of the university staff members opposed to his ambitious strategic transformation plan for the university, has fired back, denying all the charges in his replying affidavit filed in court.
The professor argued, among other things, that Makwati in his rush to court failed to take a prudent course of action and instead opted on a course of action that is meritless in the extreme.
“Had the applicant taken time to approach the director of Academic Services as the custodian of Mr. Mabaila’s academic records, he would have established that,”Mr. Mabaila had lost his credits, with his marks being recorded as Zero, and in line with the DADC’s sanction,” Norris stated.
The VC also highlighted in his submission through Chibanda and Makgalemele law firm that Mabaila, accordingly, had his enrolment status terminated and he had applied and was admitted to the university as though he were a fresh applicant and did not simply enrol without interruption.
Meanwhile, Makwati is also demanding an apology to the university community and a guarantee that Norris would not repeat such alleged favouritism and administration failures, but Norris has stood his ground, arguing that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction to mandate such apologies while Makwati doesn’t have the right (locus standi) to take him to court over the matter.
The VC has also asked the court to dismiss Makwati’s application with an order for costs.
