Fort Hare vice-chancellor cleared of wrongdoing

Independent assessors have cleared University of Fort Hare vice-chancellor  Sakhela Buhlungu of wrongdoing after allegations were made against him.

But the assessors report also highlights numerous problems at the university.

Buhlungu was accused of having an affair within an employee in his office.

He was also accused of overstepping his authority when he suspended the university’s chief audit executive, Martin Soqaga.

The assessment panel appointed by the former minister of higher education, science and technology, Naledi Pandor, found the allegations against  Buhlungu were without merit.

Pandor dissolved the university’s council in April, with professor Loyiso Nongxa named as its administrator.

Fort Hare was embroiled in scandal as senior staff were accused of misconduct.

The council called for his suspension, but was then dissolved and professor Loyiso Nongxa was appointed as its administrator.

In May, Nongxa recommended to the minister that she constitute an independent panel of assessors to conduct the investigation envisaged and proposed terms of reference for it.

The panel was appointed in July by the new minister, Blade Nzimande.

The two-member panel consisted of former Stellenbosch University vice-chancellor  Chris Brink and former Unisa registrar Lous Molamu.

The report identifies five sources of the problems facing the institution:

• Systemic problems that go back at least a decade, linked to the lack of a culture of responsibility and accountability;
• A general view of the university as a distribution apparatus or “cash cow”  for personal benefit;
• Deplorable conditions of teaching and learning facilities and some residences, aggravated by growth in student numbers due to over-enrolment;
• A council, weakened by problems of membership and quorums, which became internally factionalised and  unable to provide support to the  vice-chancellor at the moment the turnaround of the university required it most.
• A prevailing stated belief that the university should be run not by management, but by a commonality of stakeholders.  

Nongxa welcomed the report.

“I agree with its major findings and the recommendations they propose to deal with a host of deficiencies and weaknesses that have been highlighted in the report.”

He said the assessors accorded with his own preliminary diagnostic findings “and I conveyed these in my first quarterly report to the minister of higher education”.