Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane.
PHOTO: Lulama Zenzile, Gallo Image, Die Burger
- Oscar Mabuyane obtained an interdict to stop a probe into a qualifications scandal.
- The interdict is pending a judicial review of the proclamation that authorised the investigation.
- Mabuyane had launched a two-pronged court application.
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane successfully interdicted a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into a qualifications scandal at the University of Fort Hare.
Mabuyane launched a two-pronged application in the Eastern Cape High Court in Bhisho related to his enrolment at the university.
The first part of the application was an urgent interdict against the SIU probe, until the court had heard the second part of the application.
He approached the court to have the entire SIU probe with regard to his enrolment declared unlawful and set aside.
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The premier argued the investigation was unconstitutional because it went beyond the scope of a proclamation signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The proclamation, he argued, was limited to the admission of individuals who enrolled for Honours degrees.
Mabuyane also argued that the SIU was not empowered to investigate educational matters. He said only Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande had the authority to investigate academic matters.
During the hearing before Judge Thandi Norman last week, Mabuyane’s legal counsel, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argued that the SIU had expanded its scope to include Mabuyane, who was not covered in the original proclamation.
Mabuyane’s team said the SIU could not change the scope of a presidential proclamation without notifying Ramaphosa.
Ngcukaitobi said Mabuyane did not enrol for an Honours degree, but was enrolling for a Master’s degree via the Recognition of Prior Learning programme.
He said the SIU’s behaviour was unlawful, irrational and abusive, considering that Mabuyane was the one who had approached the university and offered to help its investigation.
In response, the SIU’s legal counsel, Gilbert Marcus, said that, if Mabuyane was innocent, he had nothing to fear.
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Marcus argued that the SIU was empowered to probe corruption, adding that often the scope of the investigation changed based on the evidence that emerged.
Delivering judgment, Norman declared the SIU was interdicted, pending the hearing of the second part of Mabuyane’s application.
Norman ruled the SIU had misinterpreted its authority – and, although it mentioned Master’s degrees and doctorates in its motivation to Ramaphosa, it never motivated for an inclusion in the proclamation.
She said the terms, “such as or including”, which the SIU and the university had used to grant itself extended investigative powers, were not in the original proclamation.
Norman cited responding papers from Ramaphosa, which urged the SIU to write a motivation if it sought to expand the scope of the probe to Master’s degrees.
The SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, said they were studying the judgment and would respond at a later stage.
The university, in turn, said its attorneys were studying the judgment.
“The University of Fort Hare is committed to see all issues of maladministration and fraud in the institution being dealt with in order to root out corruption,” said the university’s spokesperson, JP Roodt.
Mabuyane was approached for comment, which will be added once received.