Africa-Press – South-Africa. The spate of “terror attacks” against University of Fort Hare staff have generally been directed at its senior executives, senior aides of the vice-chancellor and managers in non-academic and support function portfolios with large capital expenditure budgets which are prone to criminal infestation, the institution said on Friday.
The attempted murder of a staff member and home invasion at his flat in Alice on Wednesday was therefore “extremely unlikely” to be connected to the failed assassination attempt on vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu or the murders of his bodyguard, Mboneli Vesele, and university fleet manager Peet Roets, spokesperson JP Roodt told News24.
In the incident, the staff member was tied up and had his mouth taped shut.
The employee, who was discovered by his colleagues who went to his home to check up on him when he failed to turn up at work, works as an electrician in the university’s maintenance department. He lives off-campus.
Roodt said the staffer would be discharged from hospital on Friday.
“The university is uncertain about the reason(s) for the home invasion and incident, and whether the crime was motivated by work-related or non-work-related factors – this can only be determined once investigations have been completed by the authorities,” Roodt said.
He added:
The attack on the staff member comes less than two weeks after Vesele was shot dead outside Buhlungu’s home. He worked as a personal protection officer for the vice-chancellor for five years.
Roets, who had been focusing on eradicating corruption in the university’s fleet network, was killed near his Gonubie home after leaving the Alice campus in May 2022.
There had also been previous attacks at the homes of Buhlungu and two other senior staffers in March, according to the higher education department. No one was injured.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande consulted officials at the campus last week following Vesele’s murder.
He said his department’s assessments found that the incidents were “most likely linked” to a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe, launched last year, following forensic work conducted by the university.
The unit had stepped in as investigators did not have the statutory powers to probe allegations of corrupt and unlawful activities between 2012 and 2022, with specific focus on procurement irregularities in the cleaning and gardening services between 2012 and 2019; leasing of student accommodation since 2013; appointment of a service provider for the maintenance and repair of air-conditioning systems in 2018; and collusion between officials and suppliers or service providers.
The SIU would also investigate alleged maladministration into the affairs of the university’s Faculty of Public Administration in the awarding of honours degrees and the mismanagement of funds and sourcing of public servants to study in various programmes for individual financial gain.
Buhlungu was credited with “actively rooting out… deep maladministration”, which Nzimande said was “entrenched in the institution”, and which resulted in several senior managers and staff members resigning, being suspended or dismissed.
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