Joburg - Following another death of a protection unit member of the University of Fort Hare (UFH) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, the official opposition said it would conduct an oversight visit as it suspected that the university had been infiltrated by “the Mafia“.
The deaths have raised concerns, especially after the breakthrough on the assassinations of the Fort Hare University fleet manager, Peet Roets, and the bodyguard of the vice-chancellor, Mboneli Vesele.
“The signs all show to a syndicate that has infiltrated the university – a Mafia State at the institution,” said the DA.
The DA indicated that the qualification scandal of Professor Edwin Ijeoma should be taken seriously in light of his bogus Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, a tactic he replicated when he was implicated in issuing fraudulent University of Fort Hare degrees to high-ranking politicians.
It said the slow pace of the university council to review its postgraduate degree acceptance criteria would see more cases of a similar nature taking place.
“The degrees of these politicians should be revoked since they did not meet the criteria for acceptance into these programmes. This was certainly the case for four UFH students who could not graduate with their Master’s degrees due to wrong acceptance criteria used by the university,” the party said.
Apart from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation, the DA insisted that the university put safety measures in place, conduct lifestyle audits on its staff and highlight dubious tenders which are red-flagged.
It highlighted that it would conduct oversight at the UFH to gain insight into how deep the rot was at the institution.
“We cannot allow institutions of higher learning under the leadership of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande to be subjected to Mafia culture and tactics,” the DA said.
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