EDWIN NAIDU
A University of Fort Hare employee was allegedly arrested in a sting operation in Alice at the weekend. Police allegedly found him in possession of unlicensed firearms and live ammunition.
The employee, whose name is known to Inside Education, is in custody and due to appear in court.
Currently employed in a senior security management role at Calata House, the ANC provincial head office in Qonce, Eastern Cape, the man in custody joined UFH as a handyman in June 1989.
In October 2005, he was appointed as a security operations official at the university.
He left the university in March 2018. The man also worked as a bodyguard and chauffeur of a current UFH member of the Council.
In January, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, the vice-chancellor, survived an apparent assassination.
Buhlungu was not in the car at the time of the attack on 6 January when his protection officer, Mboneli Vesele, who had worked with him since 2018, was shot and killed.
In May 2022, Petrus Roets, the university’s fleet and transport manager, was also shot dead in a suspected hit related to an investigation into corruption.
Buhlungu asked the President for action on corruption at Fort Hare. The Special Investigating Unit is still conducting investigations.
Fort Hare is one of the country’s oldest universities. Its alumni include the likes of liberation heroes Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Robert Sobukwe, and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in South Africa, Zimbabwean leaders Robert Mugabe and Herbert Chitepo, and Kenya’s Elius Mathu and Charles Njonjo.
INSIDE EDUCATION
