A whistleblower who claims to be a former rector at an unnamed institution is seeking amnesty and protection to spill the beans on what he termed a concerted campaign to smear the institution’s leadership and run the historic university down.
In a letter emailed to several entities, including the presidency, the parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education and training, Minister Buti Manamela, several MPs, and political parties, the faceless whistleblower claimed that he is committed to testifying in-camera.
He said his testimony will help expose a construction mafia based in Sunnyside, Pretoria, and two Unisa council members involved in the campaign, amongst others.
“As a former Rector myself, I know and understand the strategic centre of every single University. My letter in April drew your attention to how we were manufacturing leaks against this university, being part of a construction mafia to extort money and smearing Judge Mlambo through entrapping him in coordinated sexual traps [the matter which I brought to the attention of the Court where he used to work].
“We also tried to discredit the South African Courts. Matoane’s own criticism of the South African judges is now a matter of public record. Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi, for example, suffered the same faith (sic) when she ruled against him in the TUT matter,” the whistleblower said in the letter.
He further claimed that the scheme involves discrediting the ANC, as was the case when the Unisa Foundation had bought a table during the ANC’s January 8 Statement in 2024.
“It also involves: (a) maligning the reputation of Senior ANC leaders, as replete in two Unisa Council members who vigorously opposed the University’s Honorary Degree’s committee from conferring Mr. Douglas Ramaphosa, Mr Gregg Mills, and Ms Gloria Serobe with honorary degrees; and(b) surreptitiously organizing students to disrupt former president [Thabo] Mbeki’s annual lectures by organizing former student leaders to disrupt his engagement with the Unisa community.”
Unisa spokesperson, Professor Tumi B Senokoane, said: “Unisa is shocked to hear about the revelations and hope that there shall be thorough investigation on this matter. Unisa is not shocked because there has been clear orchestrated plan to destabilize the university. And if the whistle-blower is real, it will prove that there is a cabal waiting to benefit financially at Unisa using corrupt means.”
