Notshulwana denies misconduct and says legal process under way
PROFESSOR Velile Notshulwana vehemently denied any wrongdoing when confronted about allegations of CV fraud yesterday.
What follows is part of a conversation with Notshulwana when he was confronted at the gate of his Summerstrand house.
Reporter: We checked the columns you wrote for The Herald and found that a lot of them were plagiarised.
Notshulwana: No. I didn’t even know about that. I can’t speak to that. I am dealing with this now at NMMU and will attend to anything else that comes up when it does.
Reporter: But we have found that these have been plagiarised. Other people wrote them first.
Notshulwana: Of course! I would source other work.
Reporter: But you never credited these people.
Notshulwana: But it wasn’t even an article.
Reporter: But it was published and you never credited your sources.
Notshulwana: Look, I cannot speak to that. I’ll have to speak to my lawyers.
Reporter: You claim [in your CV] to have written articles that you never did.
Notshulwana: No! No! I have not really looked at all this stuff now. I am dealing with what’s going on at NMMU for now. Like I said to you on the phone, a legal process is taking place. Any other stuff I can’t tell you.
Reporter: There are a lot of allegations being made against you. We have established that some of the articles you [claim in your CV to] have written ,[the claim] is not true. We have spoken to one of the authors who said you never did any work on the journal [articles].
Notshulwana: You spoke to nobody. I spoke to a lot of people and they have communicated to me these investigations from [the newspaper]. These are people you wrote to in the United States.
Reporter: But Dr [Shalonda] Kelly does not know who you are. She says you never wrote a journal article with her.
Notshulwana: There is a lot of stuff floating all over the place.
Reporter: That is why we want to sit down with you. So you can explain. There is a lot of evidence.
Notshulwana: I understand but there is also a lot of untruth. There is a lot of stuff going on now. I am focusing on that.
Reporter: So The Herald columns ... you are saying you never plagiarised them?
Notshulwana: I can’t speak to you now. I need to speak to my lawyers about this stuff. They didn’t even know about it.
Reporter: Can we have a copy of your thesis?
Notshulwana: I can’t speak to that man.
Reporter: We are trying to do a proper job here. We don’t want to write a story that you have not com- mented on fully too.
Notshulwana: I mean ... you know ... let me say ... OK guys let me ... I have someone on the line [he points towards his cellphone]
Reporter: You don’t think that person should wait? This is very serious.
Notshulwana: It is a serious matter. That is why I am going to the lawyers.
Reporter: The Newark Comprehensive Centre for Fathers. You say you worked there in 2007. It only opened in 2008. How did you work there before it opened?
Notshulwana: It could be ... [a long pause] there was a process of setting it up. Lots of things happened. I have to go back ... something that happened 20 years ago.
Reporter: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Inner City. The only organisation we could find is the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. They say you never worked there.They have no idea who you are.
Notshulwana: I am really not sure what you are talking about. Look man I can’t talk about this now. I am in the legal process.
We will deal with it when it comes. All of this will come later. You can write whatever you want to write.