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University of Fort Hare. Picture: MICHAEL PINYANA
University of Fort Hare. Picture: MICHAEL PINYANA

President Cyril Ramaphosa has given the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) the green light to expand its probe into claims that the University of Fort Hare awarded degrees improperly, amid reports suggesting that individuals with political ties received unmerited qualifications from the university.

In a Government Gazette notice published on Friday, Ramaphosa directed the SIU to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the allegations and tender irregularities.

The SIU will investigate the “registration or admission of noneligible persons to enrol for, study for or be awarded degrees, including bachelors degrees, honours degrees, master’s degrees and PhDs, or in a manner that was contrary to manuals, policies, procedures, prescripts, instructions or practices of or applicable to the university”, the notice states, amending the proclamation made in 2022.

The investigation must include people who did not have the “requisite degrees or articulation results to enrol for, study for or be awarded the degrees in question”.

The 2022 proclamation was amended after the SIU encountered challenges in its investigations as a result of the proclamation. Former higher education minister Blade Nzimande last year criticised the unit for widening its probe beyond the presidential proclamation.

The amendment, allows the SIU to investigate “serious maladministration and malpractices, as well as conduct that may harm the interests of the public seriously in the affairs of the university in relation to the Nguni Cattle Development Trust”.

The SIU will look at the administration and payment of allowances for food, accommodation, books, stationery, cash and study-related costs to qualifying students. It will dig deeper into the university’s health sciences faculty in relation to the Albertina Sisulu executive leadership programme in health and master of public health programme including “registration or admission of noneligible persons to enrol for, study for or be awarded degrees, in relation to the aforementioned programmes”.

The “fake degrees” issue has implicated several politicians in the Eastern Cape, home of the storied University of Fort Hare. Former public service and administration minister Noxolo Kiviet and Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane are alleged to have obtained Fort Hare qualifications fraudulently. Mabuyane and Kiviet denied the claims.

Allegations of improper awarding of degrees surfaced in 2022 when the university laid a criminal complaint against former employee Prof Edwin Ijeoma for allegedly admitting and registering two students, including Mabuyane, whom he supervised.

Ijeoma was also accused of irregularly registering former Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba for an honours degree in public administration, though she is said to not have an undergraduate degree.

khumalok@businesslive.co.za

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