Why varsity still gave prof Notshulwana the job

DESPITE being made aware of serious allegations of CV fraud against former dean of arts Professor Velile Notshulwana during interviews, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University still gave him the job as head of the family studies unit.

Allegations of CV misrepresentation surfaced in the week of March 26 – leading up to the panel interview – when one of the panellists, Professor Piet Naude, opened an envelope from an anonymous person in preparation for the interview.

The panel, led by the deputy vice-chancellor for research and engagement, Professor Thoko Mayekiso, gave the go-ahead for his appointment despite the question marks around Notshulwana's work experience and whether he had in fact obtained his doctoral degree.

Speaking on behalf of the university yesterday, Naude said on hearing the allegations, the university began an internal investigation, which was now at an advanced stage.

"We are not denying that there are questions but what I cannot tell is what the answer is to those questions because our process will have to tell us.

"What happened is that when we put those questions to our colleague, he did not immediately respond to our questions.

"He then approached his own lawyers to protect his rights and his lawyers wrote a letter to us. Our lawyers responded, so at the moment we are at that level," he said.

Naude said the major issues being probed were his doctoral degree from Southern California University, journals he claimed to have co-authored and whether he had supervised PhD students as stated in his CV.

"Our big issue was that he must give us permission to verify his doctoral degree and I can confirm now that he has given that permission, so we will proceed," he said.

"I cannot tell you what the outcome will be. We will have to see what that information yields and we will then act in the light of that. - Zandile Mbabela, Kathryn Kimberley and Michael Kimberley