By Thapelo Molefe
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on Wednesday laid bare the scale of alleged corruption and maladministration at the University of Fort Hare, telling Parliament that 252 criminal referrals have been made to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) involving former university officials and service providers.
SIU Acting Eastern Cape Provincial Head Mike Koya told the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education that the university council had characterised the institution as a “crime scene”, while the investigation remained a “moving target”, with disciplinary referrals increasing from 29 to 33.
“This is characterised by the council of the university as the crime scene. This is where a lot of corruption and fraud has taken place in the university, which is why you see there are 252 criminal referrals that were made against individuals from the university, including service providers,” Koya said.
He said the investigation had uncovered alleged collusion between university officials and service providers, with officials allegedly using friends, relatives and associated companies to siphon money from the university.
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Koya said officials allegedly worked with service providers to benefit themselves and their associates.
“This is where there was a lot of collusion between the university officials and service providers where they were using their friends, companies, or relative companies to syphon and definitely make money from the university,” Koya said.
The SIU’s investigation is being conducted under Proclamation R84 of 2022, as amended in 2024.
Among the areas investigated are procurement, student accommodation, infrastructure maintenance, academic qualifications and the awarding of honours and master’s degrees.
In one investigation into maintenance and infrastructure, the SIU presentation said the university alleged that 10 service providers had been paid R13.8 million out of R33 million spent on infrastructure maintenance without a rotation of suppliers.
“We found that there was no rotation of service providers. We found that the business is mostly given to certain people, which was due to the collusion between officials and those service providers,” Koya said.
The SIU also uncovered alleged irregularities in the university’s cleaning and gardening services.
A contract with Qush Services, which had originally run from November 2012 to October 2015, was irregularly extended on a month-to-month basis until July 2019, costing the university an additional R70.3 million.
The investigation into the contract is almost complete, with criminal and disciplinary referrals being finalised.
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Koya said the process had been delayed because investigators struggled to obtain documentation from a service provider based in Johannesburg.
Student accommodation was another area in which the SIU found alleged procurement irregularities.
Some service providers have signed acknowledgements of debt and others have repaid money, while the SIU’s civil litigation unit is considering taking other service providers to the Special Tribunal to recover alleged overpayments.
The SIU also investigated the appointment of a company to provide air-conditioning maintenance and repairs at the university.
Investigators found that the company did not meet the requirements for the appointment, resulting in an administrative referral to the Engineering Council of South Africa.
The investigation has also uncovered alleged irregularities involving academic qualifications and student admissions.
In the Faculty of Management and Commerce, the SIU said it found that 84 students had been admitted contrary to regulatory requirements and subsequently awarded honours qualifications between 2006 and 2019.
Twenty-nine matters were referred to the SIU’s civil litigation unit with a recommendation that the qualifications be revoked through the Special Tribunal or High Court, but the litigation unit declined to pursue revocation.
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Three investigations into the admission of students for master’s degrees in the same faculty are also being conducted. Two remain ongoing, while one has been finalised.
The SIU is separately investigating former head of department Professor Edwin Ijeoma, who investigators said registered a company in which he was a director and shareholder and authorised payments to it for services rendered to a university project.
Koya said investigators found that the professor allegedly used his company to siphon money from the university and benefited from what the SIU believes were irregular student admissions and registrations.
The SIU is also examining an alleged scheme in which civil servants were solicited to study at the university, allegedly for personal gain.
That investigation was closed after Dr Siziwe Monica Zuma, whom the SIU said had allegedly recruited 120 students from the South African Local Government Association and municipalities, died before the investigation could be finalised.
The SIU also said it was finalising a criminal referral after finding that Ijeoma had claimed a master’s qualification from Kensington University in California. His CV stated that he had obtained a Master’s in Public Administration from the institution, but investigators found Kensington University had been unaccredited until 1996 and said he had not obtained the qualification he claimed.
Investigators are also examining the Faculty of Law, where the SIU said it intends to investigate 486 students over allegations relating to admission requirements and the number of modules registered for in an academic year.
The investigation includes allegations that part-time students were allowed to register for more modules per semester than permitted and whether students who did not meet minimum admission requirements were allowed to register for the LLB.
Another ongoing investigation involves the Nguni Cattle Development Trust.
The SIU said a university-commissioned internal audit had identified governance and management failures at the trust, while one former Fort Hare official was alleged to have stolen more than 150 cattle from members of society.
The SIU is also investigating Fort Hare’s relationship with Intellimali, including allegations that financial statements were not submitted to the university and that interest was not paid.
Cases of students allegedly receiving funding from multiple funders are also being investigated.
The SIU’s Acting Chief Operations Officer, Zodwa Xesibe, said the Fort Hare investigation had exposed multiple weaknesses in the university’s internal controls.
“There are payments that were made prior to the services being made to the university,” Xesibe said.
She said investigators had found poor contract management resulting in contract extensions, general non-compliance with procurement processes and invoices that were not properly supported by documentation.
“There are inflated prices by service providers and nobody is monitoring this one. There’s also poor record-keeping,” she said.
In some instances, the SIU had to obtain documents directly from service providers because the university could not provide them.
Despite the findings, Koya said the university’s council was cooperating with the SIU and working to implement its recommendations.
He said the SIU was satisfied with the university’s handling of disciplinary referrals, with SIU officials providing evidence in some disciplinary proceedings and at the CCMA.
The investigation remains ongoing, with some focus areas temporarily placed on hold after the SIU found that the period under investigation fell outside its existing terms of reference.
Koya said the SIU would seek an amendment to the proclamation before proceeding with those investigations.
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