Ramaphosa and EC Premier Oscar Mabuyane to face off in court over fake qualifications

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane are expected to face off in the Eastern Cape High Court sitting in Bisho on Tuesday, over allegations that the latter used a team of ghost writers for his master’s research proposal.

Mabuyane, who is also a member of the governing party’s national executive committee, is believed to have faked his way into a PhD in public administration with the help of a tainted University of Fort Hare (UFH) professor Edwin Ijeoma and his secret team of ghost writers.

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SIU proclamation

Ramaphosa tasked the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) with interrogating maladministration and corruption at UFH, which has since become synonymous with scandals and assassinations.

Mabuyane, who insists he earned his master’s degree fairly, filed court papers earlier this month to interdict the SIU from investigating his qualification. He further asked the court to deem the SIU’s interrogation invalid and that it be set aside.

But, he later amended the court papers, asking that the SIU investigations not include his master’s degree.

The premier insists the probe is nothing more than a smear campaign.

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But UFH vice chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu dismissed Mabuyane’s comments, telling The Sowetan, “if there is any embarrassment, [Mabuyane] has brought it on himself by launching this application requiring the university and SIU to publicly explain the reasons for the investigation”.

Ramaphosa has since filed an interim responding affidavit, asking the court to strike the matter off the roll.

Sham master’s proposal

A forensic report commissioned by the institution, which found its way into the public domain, reveals that Mabuyane’s master’s proposal “was conceived of and authored and constantly refined by Ijeoma and his researchers”.

“At most, Mabuyane titivated and paraphrased here and there,” investigators found. “This after an analysis of emails and the metadata of documents turned in under Mabuyane’s hand,” News24 said in a report last month.

The Eastern Cape premier holds a BCom degree, and without an honours qualification could not have enrolled at the university for his master’s degree.

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