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Fort Hare university staffer found bound and gagged after failing to report for work

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University of Fort Hare.
University of Fort Hare.
Facebook/ University of Fort Hare
  • A case of attempted murder is being probed after a University of Fort Hare employee was found bound in his flat in Alice.
  • His colleagues discovered him in his home after he failed to report for work.
  • The incident comes two weeks after the bodyguard of vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu was murdered.

A University of Fort Hare employee was found in his flat in Alice, with his hands tied and with tape over his mouth, after he failed to report for work.

Eastern Cape police are investigating an attempted murder case after the 32-year-old man's colleagues found him in his home on Wednesday.

The incident comes two weeks after an attempt on the life of the university's vice-chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, in the same neighbourhood, during which his bodyguard, Mboneli Vesele, was killed.

Commenting on Wednesday's incident, police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said the man's colleagues noticed that he had not reported for work.

"They then went to investigate in his flat, where they eventually found him.  He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for medical care after they noticed that he was not well," he said.

He added:

The circumstances surrounding the incident are currently under investigation. No injuries were reported.

No arrests have been made.

After Vesele's murder, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, labelled the incident as "a pattern of assassinations and threats on staff at the university".

Buhlungu became vice-chancellor at Fort Hare in 2017 and was appointed for a second term last year.

The academic was credited with implementing turnaround strategies and rooting out corruption at the institution.

In May last year, the university's fleet manager, Peet Roets, was shot dead close to his Gonubie home after leaving the university's Alice campus.

It is thought to have been a hit because Roets had been working at eradicating corruption involving the university's fleet network.



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