DA to press charges against UFH’s Somniso

THE DA will press criminal charges against University of Fort Hare registrar Professor Mike Somniso for allegedly inciting violence against students.

Addressing a press conference at the institution’s Alice campus, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the DA was treating the abuse of its student body as a criminal matter.

Maimane was addressing the media after engaging in a closed-door meeting with the university’s vicechancellor Mvuyo Tom and DA’s provincial chairman Athol Trollip.

The meeting was prompted by allegations of abuse, intimidation and prejudice against students who were members of the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (Daso). The Saturday Dispatch exposed the matter. The Dispatch reported that recent attacks on members of Daso at the university appeared to be part of a plan to sabotage, frustrate and kick the official opposition’s student wing out of the university.

In a secret recording leaked to the Dispatch, a voice believed to be that of Somniso can be heard discussing plans to unleash uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) veterans onto students on the university’s Alice campus.

Speaking after the meeting with the DA’s leadership, Tom said the university was concerned and would be instituting an internal investigation.

He said the university had started the process of interacting with people alleged to have been involved in the incident.

Giving background to the incidents, Trollip said that in June he attempted to alert premier Phumulo Masualle and provincial police commissioner LieutenantCeliwe Binta to the matter, “but they turned a blind eye”.

Earlier this week the Dispatch reported that in an affidavit, six Daso students made allegations of oncampus victimisation and that police ignored their efforts to open a case.

The students further alleged they had overheard a conversation discussing the poisoning of Busisiwe Mashiqa, who became SRC president after Daso won control of the SRC in an election in May.

Mashiqa yesterday said the university lacked leadership and the VC did not set a good example as the accounting officer of the institution. Tom gave assurances the meeting was fruitful. “We shared the values of the university and they realised that this university has always had diversity and acceptance that people can belong to various affiliations,” he said.