Fort Hare paid R17-million for work that was never done, investigation finds
ICT department staff and service providers implicated in alleged multimillion-rand scam
The main administrative offices of the University of Fort Hare in Alice were burnt down following protests by students who are demanding that Vice Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu resign. Archive photo: Johnnie Isaac
- An investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has implicated senior Fort Hare ICT staff and numerous external service providers in an alleged multimillion-rand scam.
- A draft affidavit by an SIU Chief Forensic Investigator in East London describes how over R17-million was paid to 28 businesses for services that were never rendered.
- The affidavit says evidence has been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority “for further investigation and prosecution”.
- The affidavit criticises Fort Hare’s Vice Chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu for promoting Mfundo “Shakes” Scott to director of ICT during the SIU investigation, despite being aware of allegations against Scott.
- It recommends implicated ICT staff be referred to the University Council for disciplinary action.
A Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation has uncovered how a “cartel” operating inside Fort Hare University’s ICT Department systematically siphoned millions of rands through a network of colluding staff and outside businesses.
The details of the multimillion-rand scam were revealed by Nozuko Sharron Diko, an SIU Chief Forensic Investigator in East London, in a draft affidavit that GroundUp has seen.
The affidavit paints a picture of a compromised and captured department, and describes how over R17-million was paid to 28 businesses for services that were never rendered.
The SIU investigation uncovered evidence of alleged criminal offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA), including fraud and corruption. It began after a tip-off by an unidentified whistleblower.
The affidavit names four senior Fort Hare ICT employees:
- Mfundo “Shakes” Scott, Chief Information Officer, who allegedly authorised several of the invoices;
- Sonwabo Dyani, ICT Manager, who is described as the “originator” of various invoices and who allegedly called service providers to request quotations, received them, and confirmed work was done without any proof; and
- Mthandazo Dhlamini, ICT Operations Manager, and Lusanda Matyunjwa, ICT Enterprise Architect, who allegedly authorised some of the invoices.
Although a source at Fort Hare told GroundUp that the four had been suspended, we were unable to independently verify this.
The affidavit also criticised Fort Hare’s Vice Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu for promoting Scott to be the director of ICT while he was still under investigation. The SIU was under the impression that the vice-chancellor had undertaken not to promote Scott before the probe was completed.
“Given the conduct by the vice-chancellor … we shall now refer the matter to the University Council for further consideration and to ensure that the disciplinary referral against the identified officials … is dealt with,” says Diko.
Fort Hare spokesperson JP Roodt declined to confirm whether the four implicated staff members have been suspended.
“The institution will not be drawn into commenting on internal disciplinary proceedings involving staff members. As a matter of principle and policy, such processes remain confidential and are handled in accordance with due labour protocols,” he said.
Scott did not respond to a message sent by GroundUp on 14 October regarding the SIU investigation. A follow-up message was sent to him the next day, to which he responded: “Please kindly drop me a message. I am in a meeting.”
Dyani did not respond to our questions sent via email and WhatsApp. Matyunjwa responded to questions sent via WhatsApp with a voicenote, claiming he was being “framed for following a legitimate process”. He said he would like to clear his name, but did not know who he could trust: “How do I know you are not working for the university?” he asked GroundUp.
We were unable to obtain contact details for Dhlamini.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed the investigation had been completed and all the evidence was referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) “for further investigation and prosecution”.
“Additionally, criminal evidence has been submitted against the entities that were used to misappropriate or benefit from university funds,” he added.
Evidence has also been submitted to the university to enable disciplinary proceedings against “implicated staff”.
“The SIU is preparing to approach the Special Tribunal to recover funds misappropriated by the identified entities and individuals,” Kganyago said. “Internal processes are [also] underway to support the civil recovery proceedings and to set aside any administrative decision found [to be] irregular.”
He did however caution us that the affidavit we had seen is a draft.
Dirty dealings
The alleged kingpin in this looting was businessman Mzukisi Mbozana, who recruited 28 businesses as part of the scam, according to Diko’s affidavit.
These businesses submitted requests for proposals (RFQs) that were generated by Mbozana on their behalf, which they submitted to the ICT Department.
Payments to these businesses were approved and made even though they provided no supporting documents to prove that any services were delivered by them, according to Diko.
“It is submitted … that Mr Mbozana was the real bidder hiding behind entities controlled by black persons,” Diko said.
“These entities played no role in the provision of the ICT-related goods and services at the university,” she said, adding the entities appointed by the university may have knowingly been parties to “fronting”.
The implicated staff operated “as a cartel [and] this mode of operation was meticulously premeditated”, Diko said in her affidavit. She also alleged that the implicated companies and their directors “acted in furtherance of common purpose and with conspiracy to siphon huge sums of money from the ICT Department”.
“Upon payment of the monies to the various service providers, Mr Mbozana would then phone the directors of these entities to make transfers of certain amounts of monies to his elected accounts, either belonging to him or one of his entities,” Diko wrote.
A total of R10.7-million was paid to Mbozana and his companies. Of this, R823,500 was paid to his personal FNB account and R9.9-million to companies of which he is the sole director.
All the payments to Mbozana and his companies, as well as the payments to the businesses implicated in the scam, are meticulously listed in the affidavit.
Beyond authorising fraudulent invoices, the investigation uncovered direct financial transactions allegedly linking Mbozana to Scott.
Bank statements showed that between 2021 and 2024, Scott allegedly received multiple payments totalling R1.25-million from bank accounts belonging to Mbozana and one of his companies, Vavali Trading Company.
References used for these transactions - disguised as agricultural purchases - included “Merino Sheep”, “Boerboer puppies”, “Heritage stock”, and “4 Boran bulls”.
Campus unrest
The University of Fort Hare in Alice and East London descended into chaos in the wake of student protests calling for the resignation of the vice chancellor last week.
This led to the university temporarily suspending academic activities, after several of the buildings on the historic Alice campus, including the main administrative office, were torched in petrol-bomb attacks.
University of Fort Hare spokesperson JP Roodt said the damage was estimated at between R250-million to R500-million.
Minister of Higher Education Buti Manamela told Parliament earlier this week that the student protests at Fort Hare may have been hijacked by criminal elements “who may or may not be students”.
He said the damage to university property, which also spread to the University of the Free State, was “very costly.”
Troubled university
This ICT scam is the latest scandal to hit Fort Hare and follows a fake degree scandal in 2023 involving Professor Edwin Ijeoma. It resulted in the university deregistering Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane from a master’s class.
A response to a written parliamentary question in June this year revealed that an SIU investigation into the degree scandal had not yet been completed.
Buhlungu survived an assassination attempt in January 2023 in which his bodyguard was fatally shot.
Support independent journalism
Donate using Payfast
Don't miss out on the latest news
We respect your privacy, and promise we won't spam you.
Previous: How Zimbabwe is suppressing journalism
© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.