THE office of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is yet to decide the fate of University of Zululand Student Representative Council (SRC) president Wandile Mathebula following allegations that his academic qualifications were altered to make him eligible to be on the SRC.
A letter of complaint sent to Madonsela in July and seen by the Zululand Observer, states Mathebula ‘did not meet the requirement academically to run for the student representative council position. In our observation we found that Mathebula applied for special examination and he failed, but three week later it was discovered that he passed the same modules he failed,’ read the letter signed by a ‘Student of the University’.
Madonsela’s spokesperson, Kgalalelo Masibi on Friday confirmed that the complaint, which also includes allegations regarding the degrees-for-sale scandal and names other officials, was under preliminary investigation by the office of the Public Protector.
‘Once the preliminary investigation has been concluded, the findings will be presented to the Public Protector who will then make a decision whether or not to launch a full-scale investigation,’ Masibi said.
The complaint against Mathebula is part of the degree-for-sale scandal at Unizulu which the Zululand Observer reported on in June.
Mathebula graduated in May this year.
In July, Mathebula said he was looking forward to any investigation into his academic records because he had worked hard for his degree.
But when questioned about specific discrepancies in the records, Mathebula demanded to know who released his results.
He then refused to answer any question about the alleged alterations until given the name of the source.
The Zululand Observer has a copy of a file titled ‘Study Record Log File Dump’ which is reported to be the electronic trail of all the alterations made to Mathebula’s record on the internal ITS system of the university.
Alterations
According to the record, which was extracted from the system, the following alterations were made between 1 January 2015 and 18 July 2016:
• Communication and research skills module: Mark changed from 20% (fail) recorded in June 2015, to 50% (minimum pass mark) in August.
• Educational management module: Mark changed from 27% (fail) recorded in November 2015, to 50% (pass) in February 2016.
• School practicum module: Mark changed from 0% recorded in November 2015, to 67% (pass) in February 2016.
‘I gave students laptops and food, why don’t you write about that and leave my results alone?’ Mathebula asked.
Meanwhile, one university employee alleges she was asked to make some alterations on Mathebula’s results, but refused to do so on two occasions.
‘I asked for that instruction to be placed in writing so I am covered should there be any inquiry and it was the last time I heard of that. The next thing when I checked on the system, the results were changed,’ she said.
She has since been suspended on unrelated charges and is currently fighting for her job through the CCMA.
Mathebula was again contacted on Friday, but declined to comment further saying the matter was with his lawyers who had advised him not to speak to the media.
Leak concerns
Deputy Vice Chancellor: Institutional Support, Professor Neil Garrod, in an emailed response to questions at the time told the Zululand Observer that ‘the university wants to express a serious concern with regard to the leaking of university academic records.
‘Preliminary investigation indicates that Mr Mathebula’s records seems intact. The marks were captured by the lecturers and no evidence is found of any unlawful changes,’ Garrod said.
But the ZO has established that the university changed the SRC constitution on 28 August last year, just weeks before Mathebula was elected as president in October.
The academic criteria required for eligibility to be on the SRC was lowered from 70% to 60%.
Garrod said: ‘The university embarked on the drafting of a new SRC constitution. The intention was not to lower the criteria. An entire new constitution was approved by council in 2015.’
Mathebula, as SRC president, was according to sources a king maker in the appointment of the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Xoliswa Mtose, on 1 April this year.
Garrod admitted that ‘as per university policy the SRC president is a member of the selection panel for the appointment of the vice chancellor.’
Mtose was acting vice chancellor when Mathebula was elected SRC president and allegedly endorsed his campaign.
Izandla ziyageza
‘Wandile is the SRC president on Professor Mtose’s ticket and she is the vice chancellor on Wandile’s ticket, hence the university is doing everything to protect him, including doctoring his results to make him look like one of the hard working students,’ the whistle blower who sent the letter to Madonsela said.
‘Izandla ziyageza (each hand washes the other),’ he added.
The university however asserted the vice chancellor was appointed through a rigorous process whereby the panel would make a recommendation to council, who would then have to approve the appointment.
The Mail and Guardian last week reported that an ‘official with a detailed knowledge of the ITS database said only two or three staff members had access to the system all the time.
‘Lecturers have their user IDs and pass codes and can enter marks on to the system only on a specific date, after which the system automatically closes down,’ the newspaper quoted its source as saying.
The report concluded that after the system closed down, the examination section of the university became the custodian of the database.
The university has previously confirmed an employee working in the examinations department is one of two people suspended so far as a result of investigations into the degrees-for-sale scandal.
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