The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union has expressed concern over the safety of staff and students following the killing of Mboneli Vesele, the bodyguard of University of Fort Hare vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu, in what is believed to have been an attempted assassination on his boss.
Nehawu provincial secretary Mlu Ncapayi said with workers returning to work this week and the start of the academic year activities, the union is calling on law-enforcement authorities to ensure stability and order at the university.
According to a statement issued to staff and students, Vesele, the executive protection officer to the vice-chancellor, was killed in a hail of bullets just outside the vice-chancellor’s Alice residence in a planned assassination attempt on Buhlungu.
Ncapayi said: “We are disappointed to hear that the life of the vice-chancellor is under attack. Since he arrived we have seen a lot of stability at the university. Our members are happy with the progress he is making in dealing with corruption in this institution that serves the most poor and vulnerable population of the province.
“We also want the minister [of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande] to ensure that he puts the safety of workers and students first when he visits the university this week.”
Ncapayi said Nehawu, which is the majority union at both campuses of the Eastern Cape university, supports the vice-chancellor and his senior management in the hard work they are doing to restore the integrity of the university.
Siphokazi Mbalo of the Student Representative Council (SRC) said she is still traumatised by what has happened.
“I was at home when I heard about the shooting on Friday night by phone,” said Mbalo, adding that she has been working closely with Buhlungu as the president of the SRC.
She said she met Vesele in 2018. “He was a father who was always nice to people. I didn’t even know his real name, because we called him ‘Tat’ uNtlane’, his clan name. I’m still shocked,” said Mbalo.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said as the union mourns the loss of Vesele’s life, and offers “our condolences to his loved ones, we are reminded of the prevailing environment of fear that has persisted at the university for years and has led us to this tragic event”.
NTEU spokesperson Jako Nel said: “This fear, a result of the corruption condoned at the institution, cannot be uncoupled from the management style at the university.
“Over the years the VC’s [vice-chancellor’s] management teams have been seen actively victimising those staff members who attempted to address the rampant corruption and pillaging of the once great University of Fort Hare.
“Concerned staff who highlight brazen criminal behaviour in the workplace should not become targets themselves, and yet this has been the reality under the current VC.”
Nel said the conditions at Fort Hare have reached critical mass.
“The responsibility rests with prof Buhlungu to address his management team’s conduct; to finally expose the rot that has infested a legacy institution; and, together with the University of Fort Hare community, start cleaning house – before another innocent person pays for it with their life,” he said.
“The union and its members are ready to both speak up and come alongside the VC in the clean-up efforts of this prestigious university.”
Nel said NTEU represents about 10% of the of university staff comprising academic and support staff.
“The assessors report also speaks to the problems plaguing the institution and the prevailing culture of fear is a result of an autocratic and oppressive management style. This prevents many others from also coming forward,” he added.
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