Pallo, and his doctorate, missing without trace
THE Pallo Jordan mystery deepened this week as the ANC MP went to ground and a third university confirmed that he had never been one of its students.
As the controversy raged over revelations that Jordan, who has long gone by the title of “Dr”, does not hold a PhD, the usually outspoken ANC intellectual this week refused to come clean— sending only a cryptic SMS to the Sunday Times.
He was dumped this week as a Business Day columnist after failing for almost a month to file his weekly column for the publication.
Close friends, comrades and neighbours have also not seen or heard from Jordan, some saying they were worried about him.
As a result of the incon- sistencies in Jordan’s CV, the Freedom Front Plus has indicated it intends to put a substantive motion before parliament when it reconvenes on August 19.
This week, Business Day editor Songezo Zibi said that Jordan’s column had been discontinued.
“Pallo Jordan inexplicably failed to file his column three weeks ago, missed his deadline by two days last week and has not responded to numer- ous attempts to reach him since,” said Zibi.
“I have decided to discontinue his column and find another columnist in his place. Readers expect some explanation when a regular columnist is absent, and in this instance we have been unable to offer one because he has not offered us any.”
Also this week, the University of Michigan said it had no record of Jordan studying there.
“The office of the registrar of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has no record of Zweledinga Pallo Jordan,” the university said in an e-mail. Although he has never said so himself, biographical profiles of Jordan have claimed he obtained a history degree from Michigan.
Last week, the Sunday Times revealed that Jordan did not have any of the qual-
ifications claimed on his official government CV. The CV gives his title as “Dr” and claims he studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US and that he obtained a “postgraduate degree” at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Both institutions said t hey had no record of Jordan graduating, meaning he cannot call himself “Dr”, a title he has been associated with since the early 1990s.
The Sunday Times sought a response from Jordan for two weeks, but he failed to provide one. Instead, in a series of obscure SMSes, he made reference to a “Faustian bargain” entered into some 30 years ago. He also offered exclusive access to his biographical history in exchange for the Sunday Times aborting or deferring the report.
This week, the Sunday Times asked him in an SMS whether he had yet obtained the relevant explanation and would be willing to elaborate on the “Faustian bargain”. He replied: “2 late! I thought u were literate? Mephistopheles only gets one turn.”
Mephistopheles is a term for the devil from the German legend of Faust. Faust is a scholar who, dissatisfied with his life, exchanges his soul for unlimited knowledge and other pleasures in a pact with Mephistopheles.
It is unclear whether Jordan was identifying himself with Faust or the devil.
This SMS appeared to be Jordan’s only public comment this week, and his whereabouts are unknown.
A number of Jordan’s friends said they had not been able to find him since the report was published in the Sunday Times last week.
“Tell him to call me, if you find him. I am so worried,” said a prominent ANC member and long-time friend.
Another said: “I do not know where he is, and if I knew, I would not tell you.”
When a Sunday Times reporter visited his home in the Cape Town suburb of Oranjezicht, the house looked empty. There was debris in the garden and mail hung from a letter box. No one responded to the intercom.
A neighbour said Jordan was a private person whom she last saw more than a week ago. “I don’t always see him when he comes and goes, but when I saw him personally it was maybe about a week . . . 10 days ago.
“He’s very private, he’s always very busy,” said the neighbour, who asked not to be named.
“It’s a little bit sad that people feel they need to be more than what they are, and I also think it’s something that one should look at in a bigger context of our history,” she said. “He’s always
2 late! I thought u were literate? Mephistopheles only gets one turn
polite, he laughs a lot, he’s quite funny . . . I would not look at him differently if he had 10 degrees or nothing.”
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the party was not yet ready to make a statement. “The ANC will comment at the appropriate time,” he said.
A reference to a range of degrees appears in older versions of Jordan’s CV. Although they are no longer online, it is possible to track them through internet archive websites.
The ANC’s 1998 CV for Jordan said: “After Jordan finished his schooling in Cape Town, he attended various universities in South Africa, the USA and Britain. He left the country in 1962 to study at the University of Wisconsin in the US. He has acquired a number of degrees — including a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics.”
Jordan’s CV, as it appeared on the Department of Arts and Culture website while he served as minister (2004-2009) of the department, drew on this CV, stating: “He left the country in 1962 to study at the University of Wisconsin in the US. He has acquired a number of degrees — including a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics.”
No CV of Jordan’s specifies what these “number of degrees” were. The London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Cape Town have said they have no record of Jordan being a student.
It also appears that Jordan misled parliament about his qualifications.
After every general election, every MP provides his or her personal details to parliament, including titles. The list is continuously circulated in parliament, including in Hansard, the official record of parliament.
It is the responsibility of all MPs to check that their name and titles are reflected correctly. If they are not, as sometimes happens, and the MP becomes aware of an error, he or she can alert parliament and a correction is made.
In the third parliament (20042009), Jordan was always listed as “Jordan, Zweledinga Pallo Dr”, and the same is true for the current parliament, elected in May. From 2009 to 2014, Jordan was not an MP.
The acting secretary of parliament, Baby Tyawa, said: “Parliament is not involved in that. He is a member of the ANC in parliament. Parliament does not make requirements for a member to have a degree or PhD.”
FF+ chief whip Dr Corné Mulder said: “We will ask for the appointment of a committee to look into this matter. That will give Mr Jordan the opportunity to clarify his position . . . We are in the process of obtaining the necessary evidence.”