Fort Hare vice-chancellor’s resignation letter ‘fake’

Fort Hare University has distanced itself from a letter claiming its vice-chancellor, Prof Sakhela Buhlungu, has resigned.

This comes after a letter made its rounds on social media with what looked like the university’s letterhead.

The resignation letter was signed, purportedly by Buhlungu.

Fort Hare marketing and communications manager, Khotso Moabi, dismissed the letter as fake.

“It [the letter] is absolutely fake,” Moabi said.

Asked if the university would be sending out a statement, Moabi responded: “For us it’s not worth engaging it’s just fake news.”

The fake letter states: “After much deliberation with my family and considerable engagement with the UFH Administrator and the Office of Institutional Advancement, I have decided to step down as the University of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor.

“My decision was not made lightly — I am a proud leader and champion of fairness and it is in light of this that I have come to this uneasy decision.”

Protests at the university culminated in the suspension of the academic programme on Thursday.

Previously, Buhlungu said: “Since February 24 the university has experienced ongoing intimidation of and violence against staff‚ students and members of the public‚ as well as looting and damage to property.”

Earlier on Thursday, Buhlungu announced that the teaching programme had been suspended.

“Management has taken the difficult decision to suspend the teaching programme on all campuses until further notice,” he said.

Students were given a deadline of 6pm on Thursday to leave campus and vacate their rooms in all university-owned and leased residences.

At the heart of the protest is a “register one, register all” demand by students.

The university said in February that some students had been financially excluded because of historical debt and did not meet the criteria of the national department of higher education.

After receiving the evacuation notice, the SRC called a student mass meeting to inform students not to comply until they had engaged with management.

“It doesn’t make sense to tell students to go, especially because they [management] know that some students are from outside the province and outside the country,” SRC president James Nqabeni said.

He said the SRC felt the notice period to leave was insufficient and argued that some students did not have the finances to travel back to their homes.

“Remember, some students have already paid for residences, so who is going to pay that money back to them,” Nqabeni asked.