Professor Njabulo Ndebele was this week appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) with the unanimous approval of the council.
In a closely guarded selection process, Ndebele emerged as the favourite to take up the reins, as outgoing vice-chancellor Dr Mamphele Ramphele moves to her new position as one of four managing directors at the World Bank in May.
Ndebele beat little-known University of Natal senior deputy vice-chancellor David Maughan Brown and will take office on July 1.
It was Ndebele’s second application for the UCT top job. In October 1995 he withdrew as one of three shortlisted candidates ahead of addressing a public meeting at UCT’s Jameson Hall.
In 1997, he unsuccessfully applied for the post of vice-chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand, but spoke to a jam-packed Great Hall at the university with fellow candidates June Sinclair and Sam Nolutshungu.
Ndebele, one of South Africa’s eminent academics, is an award-winning author with more than 13 years’ experience in teaching creative writing and African literature, and at least 10 years in university management.
Since the start of this year, Ndebele has held the De Beers chair of English in UCT’s department of English and literature. He has just completed a term as scholar-in-residence at the Ford Foundation in New York.
Last July, Ndebele was accused by a commission of inquiry of presiding over the illicit transfer of R20-million of university funds into a private education company, Edupark. The chair of the university council, Benny Boshielo, was suspended for mismanagement and later apologised to Ndebele for accusing him of being party to the scandal. – Marianne Merten
PMreduced to tears
Swaziland’s Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini, this week fled the country’s Parliament in tears after he was asked why his daughter lives in a house built by a millionaire under investigation for drug charges.
The premier ran out of the House of Assembly after MPMfomfo Nkambule brought it to the House’s attention that Dlamini’s daughter lives in a house built by Ron Smith, who is currently facing drug-related charges in South Africa.
Dlamini evaded the issue and said Nkambule was not appointed to Parliament to assassinate his character. It was then that the premier, apparently overcome by emotion, fled the House. Shortly afterwards, one of his bodyguards came to pick up his documents and left. The House of Assembly was immediately thrown into caucus.
Before the premier fled, Nkambule also revealed a police corruption scandal in which Smith was framed on drug-related charges by top police officers and other senior government officers who owed him huge sums of money.
Meanwhile, The Times of Swaziland reported that there were mixed reactions in the House of Assembly this week when Nkambule – the king’s appointee – questioned the minister of natural resources and energy about the cow-dung project that was to turn cow dung into gas.
The question seemed to tickle a group of MPs who burst into laughter, while others felt it was inappropriate to raise the issue as it might have embarrassed the former speaker, Mgabhi Dlamini, who was forced to resign over the theft of cow dung.
The minister said his ministry is investigating the project. – M&G reporter
Three held for massacre
Three men have been arrested for pulling off the January 1998 massacre of 11 African National Congress supporters in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, which took place hours after the assassination of Sifiso Nkabinde, the strongman of the troubled town of Richmond.
The men – Blessing Nkabinde, Bongani Derrick Nkabinde and Emmanuel Dlamini – appeared in court this week in connection with the killings, known as the Ndabazitha massacre.
The arrests serve to vindicate Pietermaritzburg magistrate Ashin Singh, who has been involved in a long-standing row with the head of the province’s Directorate of Special Investigations, advocate Chris MacAdam, over the massacre. MacAdam originally arrested soldiers from 8 South African infantry battalion, who now plan to sue for wrongful arrest, despite the fact Singh insisted the real killers were still roaming free.
MacAdam rubbished Singh’s insistence that these were not the real killers, fuelling a row which culminated in MacAdam issuing a gagging order against Singh.
Singh this week defied the order against him to say: “This is the biggest bugger- up in the history of criminal investigations in this country. A bunch of complete amateurs have buggered up this investigation. The killers were known months ago and vital evidence will now have been lost.” – Paul Kirk
A basket of bad eggs?
Yet another bad egg has been found at the disgraced Chatsworth police station in Durban. Using police time, telephones and offices, a female captain has been making a small fortune by running a car-watch operation instead of doing her police work.
Chatsworth shopping centre, the scene of the Throb nightclub disaster, is barely 100m from the police station. With a regular flow of police vehicles passing the complex it should be one of the safer places to park. However, Captain Savithree Reddy still manages to make a mint out of protecting cars at the complex.
Records of the Registrar of Companies show Reddy is the sole owner of Chatsworth Vehicle Security, a company that supplies car guards to the shopping complex.
In contravention of municipal by-laws the company is not registered with the Durban City Police. Anyone wishing to operate a car-guard scheme in Durban streets needs police permission.
Despite numerous attempts to contact Reddy, the Mail & Guardian was not successful.
Reddy is one of 17 top officers at the station who are due to be transferred out of the area. An investigation into her business interests is currently under way. – Paul Kirk