‘Whistleblower remains suspended at Unisa despite being cleared’

AFRIFORUM is calling out the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) for alleged double standards after it quickly established a task team to investigate governance issues at the College of Cape Town while ignoring similar allegations at Unisa, where Dr Reshma Mathura remains suspended despite being cleared of corruption allegations.

Mathura, Unisa’s acting Chief Financial Officer, was suspended in April last year. It had been alleged that she had received notification of four “unexpected and unsolicited” cash deposits of R330 into her private bank account, on April 2, 2024.

She remains suspended for 18 months later, despite being cleared of any wrongdoing months ago.

Mathura claimed that her suspension had been part of a “dirty tricks” campaign because she had exposed corruption and suspicious transactions at the university

Her legal team, AfriForum's private prosecution unit, said the deposits were fraudulent and made “to slander her and remove her from her position” at the university.

This week, Afriforum said the DHET’s tolerance of the alleged corruption at Unisa exposed "apparent double standards”.

This after Minister of DHET, Buti Manamela, announced that he had established a stabilisation and dispute resolution task team to investigate the governance crisis at the College of Cape Town (CCT). 

“For nearly 18 months, AfriForum’s private prosecution unit had exposed blatant mismanagement and abuses of power at Unisa that were targeted at staff who have investigated and uncovered rampant corruption plaguing the higher education institution. 

“At the time, Mathura lawfully co-operated with a Hawks investigation into corruption at the university.

“In May last year, we urged Blade Nzimande, former minister of DHET, to intervene at Unisa, but the appeal appears to have been ignored,” said Barry Bateman, spokesperson for Afriforum.

In a letter to Manamela this week, Advocate Gerrie Nel, head of the private prosecution unit, called for Manamela to launch an investigation at Unisa, like he did at CCT.

“We welcomed Manamela’s decision at CCT. It was appropriate, considering the seriousness of the allegations.  We are confident that Manamela would heed this call for an investigation at Unisa.

“We therefore have full confidence that he will treat this correspondence and allegations related to Unisa with equal seriousness and vigour.

“A clear practice has emerged whereby staff members who are incorruptible and stand in the way of Unisa management’s illegal abuse of power and illicit spending are suspended to neutralise them. 

“The ineluctable inference is that the intention is to remove them from their positions and allow their contracts to reach their termination dates and to avoid a public disciplinary process. The government’s failure to support and protect whistleblowers and those people who stand up against corruption seems to be only topical when murder is linked to these exposures.

“These sagas are the clearest indications yet of the government's wilful blindness to address the clear corruption and abuse of power at Unisa. Unfortunately, and perhaps a further reason for the failure to act, is Unisa’s financial support of a certain political party,” Nel said. 

Afriforum had asked Manamela to obtain and disclose several forensic reports, but specifically a report completed by Advocate Shaun Abrahams which is believed to have cleared Mathura of any wrongdoing. 

Bateman said the report was by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“Mathura’s continued suspension despite being cleared of all wrongdoing months ago is not only irrational, but malicious. It is indicative of a practice that has become widespread throughout government departments and entities, in which employees who speak out against corruption with the utmost professionalism and ethical duty are hounded out of their jobs rather than protected and promoted. Manamela has the opportunity to demonstrate the government’s stated commitment to combating widespread financial malfeasance by taking immediate steps to intervene at Unisa,” he said.

He said if Manamela acted quickly at CCT after receiving a mere letter of complaint, the “mountain” of forensic reports backed up by concrete evidence and witness statements would undoubtedly persuade him to take immediate action at Unisa. 

“According to our understanding, some of the recent reports not only cleared staff who were falsely accused of wrongdoing. Failure to act regrettably suggests that Unisa management is sheltered from disciplinary action,” Bateman added.

The DHET had not commented at the time of print.

 THE POST