Habib at centre of funding scandal

ALLEGATION: PULLED STRINGS FOR A FRIEND OF HIS SON

Incriminating e-mails have surfaced implicating the Wits vice-chancellor.

Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib allegedly used his position to influence the awarding of a bursary to one of his son’s friends.

The Citizen has seen e-mail correspondence in which Habib instructs employees at the university to find funding for a student, who also happens to be a friend of his son, Irfan.

The e-mails are at the centre of a disciplinary hearing against former Wits employee Khaya Sithole, who managed the Wits Thuthuka Project which funded qualifying accounting students through the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Sithole, a member of Saica, is facing disciplinary charges at the institution.

He is accused of irregularly processing and approving bursary funds. But, as detailed in a 26page affidavit, Sithole claims all he was guilty of was following the instructions of his superiors at Wits and Saica.

Key in the list of allegations are that the transgressions he is accused of processing were done under the instruction of members who were his superiors at the time, including Habib and CEO of Saica, Terrence Nombembe.

“During the course of 2014, 2015 and 2016, these individuals would individually and occasionally, in cahoots with each other, initiate the addition of irregular students on the programme, in a manner that took advantage of the power they had to override any decision I made.

“This was in light of the fact that in one way or another, I reported to these individuals and was bound by definition to comply with whatever request they advanced my way,” he says in the affidavit.

In the e-mails seen by The Citizen, which date back to 2014, a student at the university appeals to Habib, introducing himself as his son’s friend and complaining that despite his academic achievements and numerous applications for funding, he had yet to receive feedback.

Habib forwarded this e-mail to his deputy Tawana Kupe and Associate Professor Nirupa Padia with a friendly instruction to assist him.

“See e-mail below,” the e-mail reads. “I think I know him as one of the students in Irfan’s class. But my attention was drawn to the fact that he had distinctions in Maths and accounting. I am not sure what he is doing. Anyway, we can help? How about Thutuka if he is doing accounting … What do you think?”