The vice-chancellor who refused

Professor Sakhela Buhlungu of the University of Fort Hare has had to live through death threats, the killing of colleagues and shocking betrayal in his five years’ tenure. It’s an extraordinary tale that he tells

It has been 18 months since the first murder of an employee rocked University of Fort Hare vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu’s tenure, and 14 months since his bodyguard was gunned down in front of his official residence. During this time, Buhlungu went from having a high profile in public to the opposite.

In an exclusive interview, Buhlungu revealed how he went on a crusade for justice, going all the way to the Presidency to try to bring closure to the slain men’s families and reassure his colleagues, university staff and students. And to see the guilty persons charged and convicted.

The murders are believed to be linked to a tender corruption syndicate that has cost the institution millions of rands.

“People think, shame, he is hiding under his bed, but I am not. No, I am on campus every day, cheering our students on. Celebrating all the time,” Buhlungu said.

Petrus Roets, the university’s fleet and transport manager, was shot and killed in Gonubie in East London on 19 May 2022. Mboneli Vesele, Buhlungu’s driver and bodyguard, was shot dead in Dikeni (formerly Alice) on 6 January 2023.

The police have arrested a fellow cop, a local businessman and lawyer, students, university employees – including the head of vetting and investigations, Isaac Plaatjies – and hit men from Kwazulu-natal for the murders. But to understand what happened, Buhlungu says it is essential to go back to 2017, when he joined the university.

“When I got here to Fort Hare, I was a total stranger. I came in cold. I had no friends, no faction that carried me in or who rooted for me. Only when I landed here did I realise we have factions, thieves and mafia leaders. Then they realised I was not quite the person they thought I was.”

Though student and staff strikes marred the first two years of his tenure, things took a turn for the worse when the murders started. Roets was the second fleet manager at the university who was killed.

In court documents, the State links Roets’s murder to an extensive anticorruption campaign Buhlungu had initiated, which earned him death threats. Roets was one of the people he had appointed to correct the situation. Like all the new managers, he stopped all pending payments to service providers.

Vesele was appointed as Buhlungu’s bodyguard, which aggrieved Plaatjies, according to the indictment before court. It is alleged that some of the accused asked him to persuade Vesele to join their mission to oust Buhlungu, but he refused to betray his boss, giving the accused a reason to kill him.

“When Roets was killed in 2022, I realised that this was very serious. He was killed on the fourth day of graduation in the afternoon. It was a Thursday. Fortunately I was not officiating – the chancellor was. Plaatjies called me. I didn’t take it. Then he sent a message saying ‘Please call me: Petrus Roets has been killed’. I jumped up and went to phone him.

“The graduation was a moment of joyous celebration, colour, smiles and family, and I thought, I won’t say anything here ... I will wait until after the closing ceremony. That is when I announced it. The mood just changed immediately.

“We had just had a council meeting. Council said to do everything to protect people. Isaac Plaatjies was organising the protection. He got people in and did the logistics. I trusted him to do all of that.”

Buhlungu said for the next eight months there was “a sense that the authorities couldn’t be bothered”. “You know those remote towns where a taxi boss gets killed and then it is on the television for a day or in the newspapers for a day, and nothing ever happens? It was like that with Roets.”

As the police failed to identify suspects, Buhlungu took the fight for justice public.

“I remember stepping on to a podium and saying we will never let this case go. It will never get cold. Of course, the media was there and they ran with it. We put our resources into this. First, we cracked the Roets case. But then Vesele was killed.

“I was back on the podium, and this time I said forget the police and the police commissioner and the national minister of this or the other. President Cyril Ramaphosa must act now. Then the President phoned. He heard the message. It was very clear.”

Buhlungu said by the time

Ramaphosa called, he was fearing for own life but had to hide it.

“There were messages of sympathy coming in from all over the world. I was concerned for my life as well, but there was a bigger picture.

“I couldn’t afford to be weak or scared at that time. I had to be scared inside. That was the face the public saw.”

The call on Ramaphosa to do something was Buhlungu’s last big public speech before he withdrew from the public eye to get “the backroom work” done.

“Following the discussion with the President, we agreed that he should send his ministers down. He said something will be done.”

But Buhlungu could tell quickly that the ministers didn’t have a plan. “The first word I heard from them was that there had to be a press briefing. I said fine, do your press briefing, but I am not going. This is not a show. I won’t be part of a charade like that here. I only want to talk to the minister who holds the jail keys.

“I said I will stay away from campus until you are done with your press briefing, but that is it. I want a meeting with [Police Minister Bheki] Cele. It caused a storm, because then they had to come to campus. But in the end, there was a compromise that [Higher Education Minister Blade] Nzimande would come here and meet with members of the university’s council.

“I said I will go to Zwelitsha [East London] to the police headquarters and meet with Cele and the national commissioners... The media was talking about the tension between me and Nzimande. I said we are not here to play. I said you have got to arrest people,” Buhlungu said.

“The visit came hardly five days after Vesele died. All these clowns came into town and I thought, I don’t have time for this nonsense. Someone has died.” A national task team was subsequently formed and it became the game-changer.

But Buhlungu was shocked when he was asked for the case number of Vesele’s murder at the team’s first meeting.

“I said I am going to kick you out of this room. I am going to get security to escort you out of that gate. You are coming to waste my time. The SAPS here have the case. It was registered here with them... If you ask me for a case number, it shows that you are a bunch of incompetents yourself. I said I would phone Cele about this and tell him you are wasting my time.”

Buhlungu said during this period there was an atmosphere of fear across campus among students, ordinary staff and more senior people. So, for the institution’s sake, he held fears about his own safety at bay.

“I also wanted to show that we were not leaving. I said we would not go into a safe house. I am not going anywhere. I was staying

It comes with the territory, I suppose. I managed to trim my life right down. The last time

I walked in Alice must have been six years ago. I used to love walking, but

now I can’t do it

in the background to watch.

“Then we had the first breakthrough. With the police investigation, I needed to be there. You must keep watch all of the time – be vigilant, alert and assertive. I had to do that. I phoned Cele if I didn’t see things moving. I was calling the generals.

“It helped that we had a task team that was thirsty for something. We had a minister who was thirsty for something.”

Easter 2023 was when the first breakthrough arrests took place. “That fateful Easter weekend, the investigators sent a message on Friday: we got them, but don’t say anything until they appear on Monday.

“I knew who they arrested. The one was a recently retired official we took back to work on contract. He was the chancellor’s driver during ceremonies. Another worked with Roets. One was a former student turned businessman who repaired the university’s vehicles. The other two – I didn’t know them – were the boys from Kwazulu-natal, the hit men.

“But the big picture wasn’t apparent. I didn’t know where this was going,” Buhlungu said. “I scaled down my public exposure

April 2023 Five suspects are arrested and charged. They are:

 Bongani Peter, the university’s chief operating transport officer;

 Wanini Khuza, a retired supervisor of drivers at the East London campus. He had been brought back on contract and was the chancellor’s driver;

 Sicelo Mbulawa, a former student representative council member and businessman who provides vehicle repair services to the university;

 Mthobisi Khanyile and Mthobisi Dlamini, alleged hit men from Kwazulu-natal, both with long criminal records.

Their bail applications are initially refused but Mbulawa is later granted R75,000 bail by the Makhanda High Court.

July 2023

A policeman attached to the detective services in Mthatha, Constable Lindokuhle Manjati, is arrested, charged and added as accused number six.

August 2023

Zimele Chiliza, a taxi boss from Kwazulu-natal, and attorney Pelisa Nkonyeni are added as accused numbers seven and eight. Chiliza is released on R100,000 bail and Nkonyeni on R50,000 bail.

September 2023

Thamsanqa Mgwetyana, who has been hiding from the police in Kwazulu-natal, is found and added as accused number nine. He remains incarcerated. In court, it is said that he was the person who linked Isaac Plaatjies, the university’s director of vetting and investigations, to the murders.

17 November 2023

Plaatjies is arrested, charged and added as accused number 10. He remains incarcerated. In the latest court ruling in his attempts to get bail, the magistrate says he was the one who drew up the hit list. He is described as dangerous and dishonest by the court.