Students at Fort Hare fight VC allegations

HITTING back at University of Fort Hare vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, student leaders yesterday accused the academic of leading a riotous looting spree on campus.

They even claimed he took the head and feet of a cow that was slaughtered, allegedly by students this week.

The students were responding to Buhlungu’s allegations that rioting students had slaughtered a cow and eaten it during their violent protest on Monday.

Buhlungu made the allegations from his home in Alice, where he also claimed students were being incited by “corrupt officials” who were against his anticorruption stance.

A press conference at the Alice campus yesterday turned comic when questions were asked about the dead cow.

“Thieves from Ntselamanzi village stole that cow and ate it,” the campus premier, Lwandile Mgedezi, said.

“That heifer died on her own from old age,” a member of the shouted out.

“The VC also took its head and feet and ate it,” another shouted.

It has been two weeks since students caused damage worth R4-million after looting sprees and burning property.

The university was granted a court interdict by the Bhisho High Court on Thursday which forbids students from protesting at or near the institution.

Responding to the question on whether the SRC organised a massive braai with meat from the slaughtered cow, Mgedezi said: “We always braai here on campus but we braai our own meat because we get a meal allowance.”

The students said they would meet tomorrow to decide whether to abandon their protest or continue despite the court interdict.

The students have been demanding that Buhlungu personally accept their demands – something the academic said he would not do for safety reasons.

The student leader, however, insisted that “we will not give this memorandum to anyone either than him”. — malibongwed@dispatch. crowd