The University of Limpopo (UL) has slapped Tebogo Letsie, the chairperson of parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, with a letter of demand for his alleged defamatory statements about the institution.
In a letter dated April 30, 2025, Anton Baker Attorneys, on behalf of the university, requested that Letsie desist from commenting about the university or its council without evidence.
The varsity demanded a retraction of statements he made in recent media interviews.
Letsie was interviewed on PowerFM and NewzRoom Afrika where he answered questions about a judgment handed down by the Limpopo High Court in March.
The university was ordered to reconsider its decision not to recognise the qualifications two students obtained from the Durban University of Technology.
During the PowerFM interview, Letsie mentioned concerns about UL falling apart because it failed to apply the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
He then questioned the extension of the term of office of vice-chancellor Mahlo Mokgalong and accused the university of employing multiple law firms to launder money.
Parliament has raised concerns about the university doubling the money spent on legal fees during the last financial year. At least R14-million was spent on legal fees to defend the university against students and staff.
Parliament also wants insights into the legal opinion which was used to extend the vice-chancellor’s term of office.
While on NewzRoom Afrika, Letsie repeated the allegations and spoke of rumours about the
university intentionally blocking students from graduating.
The letter of demand calls for Letsie to apologise or face legal action.
However, he told Sunday World that he does not see fault in his comments and won’t apologise.
“These people don’t understand the NQF articulation because if they did, they wouldn’t have prevented these students from graduating and the court wouldn’t have set aside their decision to deregister these students,” he said.
There has been ongoing friction between UL and parliament. On March 28, the institution received a summons from parliament, compelling it to submit outstanding information and documents about several issues. Letsie maintains that the summons was ignored.
“We wrote to them on the 28th of November 2024, no response. We wrote to them on the 2nd of December 2024, no response. We then decided to summon those documents in our meeting on the 5th of February. … We summoned them because they were not responding to our request,” he said.
However, university spokesperson Victor Kgomoeswana begged to differ.
“The university has responded, in its response [it stated that] a request for information should be done in accordance with the laws of the land.
“This includes the Constitution, department of higher education statute and the Power, Privileges, and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act,” he said.
The response Kgomoeswana is referring to is a lawyer’s letter dated April 4, addressed to the secretary of parliament Xolile George. UL claims that the summons is “unlawful and constitutes abuse”.
Kgomoeswana said the UL management met with Minister of Higher Education Pamela Nkabane on December 6, 2024, after she had raised concerns necessitating it to make representations regarding her intention to appoint an independent assessor.
According to Kgomoeswana, the Department of Higher Education and Training invited the university to a meeting on February 12 and agreed that the affairs of the university were properly managed by the council.
