A multi-disciplinary task team has been established to investigate the recent fatal attacks at Fort Hare University.
This follows a visit to the university on Wednesday by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, who was accompanied by Police Minister Bheki Cele and Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, among others.
In a statement on Thursday, Cele said the task team, which will report back to national police commissioner Fannie Masemola, comprises detectives, forensic analysts, crime intelligence, members of organised crime, and the directorate for priority crime investigation.
The police minister has assured the management of Fort Hare that the police are toughening their responses and would heighten policing interventions to find the people responsible for a series of attacks on university staff.
On Friday last week, Mboneli Vesele, the bodyguard of the vice-chancellor, was ambushed in what is believed to have been an attempted hit on his boss professor Sakhela Buhlungu. Vesele was killed in a hail of bullets near Buhlungu’s residence in Alice, Eastern Cape.
Last year, the university’s fleet manager Petrus Roets was gunned down in a suspected hit. In another incident, the unknown gunmen opened fire at the staff village with a bullet hitting the fridge door in deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning professor Renuka Vithal’s residence.
“It is quite clear that the local police are just not working fast enough in making arrests,” Cele said.
“This newly established national team 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.
“As we start the academic year, we can’t afford to have anyone, be it a student, a lecturer and even a groundman or cleaner of this institution 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.
“This, I am sure, will guarantee that this respected institution is not turned into a killing field.”
During his visit to Fort Hare on Wednesday, Nzimande told a media conference: “I remain outraged by this inhumane act. The police will go deep … and find the perpetrators.”
He said he phoned Buhlungu to offer his condolences and support the moment he heard about the shooting and killing of Vesele, adding that he has been in contact with Cele daily about the case.
Nzimande added that it is not true that his department has done nothing after the murder of Roets in 2022. “When Mr Roets was killed, we reached out to the university. We sent a director to speak at the memorial service, and we spoke about the need to prioritise the killings.
He further noted that his department will process the submissions collected during his visit and come up with measures to secure the safety of all staff and students.
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