Dear Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training,

We are concerned staff of the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

We have reached out to you, raising our concerns that we are continuously victimised and harassed on a day to day basis. Furthermore, we are consistently harassed by the HR department who has violated our human rights and the basic conditions of employment.

The CEO has spent a large sum of public funds on legal fees. Her tenure at the institute is one that has been tumultuous. A tyrant who has ran rampant and victimised so many, yet there has been no justice, and we have lost faith in our system as it shows that those who are in power can abuse the system for their own benefit.

The vision and mission of the institute is to dynamise, promote and catalyse the humanities, yet, this is a word that is unheard of in the institute.

Our largest stakeholders, PhD students in the field of humanities, are battling to survive, simply put, it is June 2018, and so many have not received payment. If then as a department of higher education and training your aim is to improve lives and provide good quality access to free education, how is this mandate going to be reached?

Although the NIHSS had a board, it seems that decisions on policy, financial and legal implications are done unilaterally by the CEO. Where is accountability and integrity?

We implore you once more to take our matter forward.

Sincerely

aggrieved NIHSS Staff