SRC’S call for fraud probe ignored

THE University of Kwazulunatal’s student representative council (SRC) president said student bodies have been calling for an investigation regarding corruption at the medical school for many years, but were ignored.

Noxolo Bhengu, who is also a fifth-year medical student, said the suspects who have been arrested as part of the syndicate were outsiders and they are waiting for the real culprits to be exposed.

She also called on staff with information to speak out.

“In 2014, the Medical School SRC was excluded from sitting through the admissions process. We fought against this but they refused to let us in. We always wondered why – so the process could be manipulated. Proof was further displayed when we sat in our classes and noticed the demographics of the students. It was obvious the quota policy was not being implemented,” said Bhengu.

She said they spoke out louder in 2012 when the “Dean’s discretion” became part of admissions.

Since last year, she has been calling for audit firm KPMG’S forensic report which looked at fraud and corruption. It never was handed over to the SRC. “We’d like to know why.”

The Sunday Tribune published the contents of the report earlier this year. It is believed the university paid KPMG R1.4 million for it.

It found some students were wrongly given a place “due to an IT system error”. It found students were denied places because of a database and school quintile ranking errors.

“Unidentified people have been accessing the system and ‘regretting’ applicants.”

KPMG could not prove bribery allegations as it did not have access to UKZN employees’ accounts.

“We will not have corruption at our university. Justice must be served,” she said.