Plagiarist academic Edward Mitole now claims he is a ‘spook’ lying low

‘Plagiarist professor’ Edward Yusuf Mitole has threatened to slap The Citizen with a R10-million lawsuit for exposing his lies about being a University of South Africa (Unisa) professor and former president Jacob Zuma’s political advisor.

Mitole has presented copies of Unisa conference programmes, where he is listed as a participant, as proof of his supposed employment at the institution, saying no institution would confirm his employ because he has worked for the intelligence services.

“You don’t know how the intelligence services work. When you join the intelligence service you lose your personal identity,” he charged in an email.

Tirade

The Citizen has reported how Unisa has distanced itself from Mitole’s claims that he was a professor at the institution, and the publication has reliably established that he was never [Jacob] Zuma’s advisor as he claimed in his online Curriculum Vitae.

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“We have discussed this latest article with my lawyers and we have decided to sue you and your paper for slander and libel. This article has caused me and my family a lot of mental anguish and trauma. I am on the verge of losing my job due to your prejudice, sensational journalism, and lack of professional ethics,” he retorted in the email.

Mitole complained that most of the article was conjecture, half-truths, lies and misrepresentation of facts.

“Did you really expect the institutions you contacted to confirm I did some work for them? Did you really expect them to sacrifice one of their own? I have worked in the national intelligence services of this country for a very long time, and I can assure you that in our brotherhood we don’t sacrifice each other. I wonder why someone in his right frame of mind would expect [former] president Zuma to confirm that I served as his advisor because that is privileged information,” he charged.

In the email, sent last Thursday night, Mitole, a popular analyst, demanded a retraction and apology within 48-hours, failing which “we shall be left with no option but to commence litigation immediately”.

Exposed

Mitole’s claims may have flown under the radar for who knows how long, had he not rubbed up president of Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) Nelvis Qekema the wrong way.

Qekema took to Facebook to complain that Mitole, without naming him directly, plagiarised his essay on Black Consciousness and Pan Africanism.

Qekema said the essay was published on the Azapo website and on Facebook on 30 May 2014, but that the essay was published on Modern Ghana’s website on 22 December 2022 under Mitole’s name.

Mitole also claimed in his CV, which has since been taken down, that between 2015 and 2017 he was a visiting scholar in the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Humanities.

But the university could not find his name and surname on the system but spokesperson, Rikus Delport, said they could not do a proper check without his identity number.

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