Fort Hare head 'won't back down or run away' despite security worries

University of Fort Hare (UFH) vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa if he, his executive staff, other staff and students are safe.

Ramaphosa spoke to Buhlungu by telephone this week after his impassioned plea to the president to ensure his safety as he cleans up corruption at the university. This followed the assassination of Buhlungu’s bodyguard, Mboneli Vesele, on Friday night outside Buhlungu’s university residence in Alice in the Eastern Cape.

During Vesele’s memorial service at the Alice campus on Thursday, the vice-chancellor said Ramaphosa was “very calm, gracious and profound”, adding they had “a productive discussion”.

“As a consequence of our discussion, the president dispatched three ministers.”

Higher education minister Blade Nzimande, police minister Bheki Cele and minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele as well as the deputy minister of intelligence Zizi Kodwa visited the Eastern Cape on Wednesday.

He said he had a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Cele, national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola and Kodwa.

Buhlungu dispelled reports that he was being kept in a secret location and told Cele, “you can never run an educational institution from a cave, even with modern technologies”.

“There’s no secret location, I live in a house here in Alice. I told minister Cele I am going nowhere. This is not some kind of media bravado I am making. I don’t have any other place to go.”

He said he was an academic until he came to Fort Hare as vice-chancellor in November 2017.

“That’s my job. The job of running away from bullets I don’t know. I am not trained for that. Even now as an administrator, it’s not part of my job description.”

Commenting on Vesele’s death, he said “the aim was clear to finish off both of us”.

“They are stealing now in a brazen way, by force. That’s what it is.”

He said he was the victim of a relentless smear campaign.

The attack on Vesele was the latest of several incidents at the university, which has been working with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to clamp down on tender corruption, the suspicious awarding of honours degrees and mismanagement of funds at the institution.

University fleet manager Petrus Roets was killed in a suspected hit last year; shots were fired at a senior official’s home, with a bullet lodging in her fridge; and a man carrying a gun was captured on CCTV footage climbing over a wall and firing three shots at the entrance to Buhlungu’s house in March.

Speaking glowingly of Vesele, Buhlungu said the two shared a very special and professional relationship.

“He was there as a professional. He was not my slave. When I was busy, I trembled internally when I needed to ask him to go and grab some food. I trembled. His job was not to buy me food. It’s not done. That was not his job.”

He said when he met Vesele, he “gained a brother, colleague, a person in whom I could confide”.

“I have never had such an intense and deep interaction with someone. This period for me has been a period of deep, deep collegiality. He was a soldier and a perfect gentleman.”

Buhlungu said Vesele started working as his bodyguard at a time when there was “major turbulence” at the institution. “He managed me in a context where I really, really needed managing.”

In a media statement on Thursday, the police ministry said a multidisciplinary team had been established to closely investigate the pattern of threats on the lives of the staff members of the institution.

“The team, which will report directly to the office of the national commissioner, is expected to commence its investigations into the murder of Mboneni Vesele.”

According to the statement, the scope of the investigative team will include other alleged attempted hits on university staff, including the murder of Roets.

Cele said “it is quite clear that the local police are just not working fast enough in making arrests and this newly established national team, through its work, must send a strong message to criminals that this government will not be threatened or shaken and will certainly not back down or co-govern with criminals”.

The multidisciplinary team will include detectives, forensic analysts, Crime Intelligence, members of the organised crime unit and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).

“As we start the academic year, we can’t afford to have anyone, be it a student, lecturer or  even a groundsman or cleaner feel uneasy about their safety.

“This is why the team must work closely with university staff and the intelligence community to crack the cases that will see the culprits go to jail,” Cele said.