Abstract

Background: Abuse of power in rural universities is less visible to the public but widely prevalent. All kind is of corruption prevalent in this rural university such as financial, promotion, appointments, and so on so forth. Productive staff is generally appreciated and awarded in most universities but in this rural university, they get punished, terminated, or under the stress of disciplinary inquiries. Objective: To report on the abuse of power and difficulties in being academic in the rural university of south Africa.
Case history: X was an employee in health as well as in university, a dual system of employment where he has served the university from 1996 to 2018. He has undergone persistent harassment, dehumanization in his initial phase of employment. It becomes more serious later in his service in form of disciplinary inquiries, suspension, stoppage of salary, and birthday bonus. The managers of this rural university tried hard to carry out constructive termination but failed. Mr. X retired after his completion of age 65 with appreciation. The history, duration, and different designs of abuse of power have been described in this report.
Conclusion: It is to be guilty of being honest and hardworking in a rural university of south Africa.

Keywords: power abuse, management, dehumanization