Unions in the higher education and training sector have alleged that at least five of their members who are staffers at the embattled University of Fort Hare (UFH) were kidnapped, assaulted and tortured by people who identified themselves as police.
Yesterday, during a media briefing in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, officials from the Federation Union of SA (Fedusa) and the National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu) said an academic staff member was kidnapped and assaulted at his home on April 23 by 12 heavily armed people. The incident happened in East London, Eastern Cape.
Nteu general secretary Grant Abbott said the staffer was allegedly questioned by the group on recent killings of staff members and the assassination attempts on the life of vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu.
Abbott said their private investigation led to the discovery of other victims who had also been kidnapped and tortured by the same group.
Abbott claimed to have obtained CCTV and cellphone video footage of the kidnapping and handed it over to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in the province, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid and the department of justice and correctional services for investigation.
“Our investigation has led to the identification of some of the SAPS personnel and we are in possession of their photos and identities. We have sufficient evidence to have the culprits arrested and prosecuted,” said Abbott.
He, however, could not produce this evidence to Sowetan, claiming there were still ongoing investigations.
But Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali and justice department spokesperson Steve Mahlangu said they were not aware of any complaint sent to them.
In January this year, Buhlungu’s bodyguard Mboneli Vesele was killed in what was thought to be an attempt on the vice-chancellor’s life; while guns were fired on the pair just outside Buhlungu’s house at the Alice staff campus. Last year, the university’s fleet manager, Petrus Roets, was shot and killed in his car at the Gonubie off-ramp outside East London.
On Sunday, Msingathi Langa died in a suspicious car crash when an NP200 bakkie rammed into his vehicle along Cambridge Road in Qonce (formerly King William’s Town), Eastern Cape. He was a member of the university’s protection unit.
It is believed that Langa would have been a key state witness in both the murder cases and the attempted murder case of Buhlungu following the arrest of five people for the murders and attempted murder of Buhlungu.
kokam@sowetan.co.za
‘Cops terrorising union members at Fort Hare’
Staffers ‘kidnapped, assaulted and tortured’
Image: Rod Bally/ File photo
Unions in the higher education and training sector have alleged that at least five of their members who are staffers at the embattled University of Fort Hare (UFH) were kidnapped, assaulted and tortured by people who identified themselves as police.
Yesterday, during a media briefing in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, officials from the Federation Union of SA (Fedusa) and the National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu) said an academic staff member was kidnapped and assaulted at his home on April 23 by 12 heavily armed people. The incident happened in East London, Eastern Cape.
Nteu general secretary Grant Abbott said the staffer was allegedly questioned by the group on recent killings of staff members and the assassination attempts on the life of vice-chancellor Prof Sakhela Buhlungu.
Abbott said their private investigation led to the discovery of other victims who had also been kidnapped and tortured by the same group.
Abbott claimed to have obtained CCTV and cellphone video footage of the kidnapping and handed it over to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in the province, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid and the department of justice and correctional services for investigation.
“Our investigation has led to the identification of some of the SAPS personnel and we are in possession of their photos and identities. We have sufficient evidence to have the culprits arrested and prosecuted,” said Abbott.
He, however, could not produce this evidence to Sowetan, claiming there were still ongoing investigations.
But Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali and justice department spokesperson Steve Mahlangu said they were not aware of any complaint sent to them.
In January this year, Buhlungu’s bodyguard Mboneli Vesele was killed in what was thought to be an attempt on the vice-chancellor’s life; while guns were fired on the pair just outside Buhlungu’s house at the Alice staff campus. Last year, the university’s fleet manager, Petrus Roets, was shot and killed in his car at the Gonubie off-ramp outside East London.
On Sunday, Msingathi Langa died in a suspicious car crash when an NP200 bakkie rammed into his vehicle along Cambridge Road in Qonce (formerly King William’s Town), Eastern Cape. He was a member of the university’s protection unit.
It is believed that Langa would have been a key state witness in both the murder cases and the attempted murder case of Buhlungu following the arrest of five people for the murders and attempted murder of Buhlungu.
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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