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Education department asked to probe UniZulu for ‘quashing’ rape case

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The key witness of an alleged rape incident at University of Zululand has turned to the Department of Higher Education and Training in desperation and asked it to investigate the circumstances that he says forced him to resign.

The man claimed that he had witnessed a staff member – his senior – raping a former postgraduate student on campus last year.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, claimed the university didn’t believe him, that his family was threatened, and that instead of investigating the rape case the university had instituted charges of plagiarism against him.

When the university was approached about allegations that the family of the key witness was threatened, they declined to comment. The university didn't confirm or deny that they sent people in his home.

The student said her fears for her safety led her to leave the institution last year. She had since registered with another university.

Read: UniZulu abandons rape probe

City Press has learnt that the witness had approached the department’s director-general, Gwebinkundla Qonde, and asked for a formal investigation into the matter.

Part of his plan was to force the university to admit that it abdicated its responsibility by not investigating rape allegations.

He also initiated a legal battle with the university which insisted he was dismissed for plagiarism and gross dishonesty.

He claimed to Qonde that he was forced to resign after the university sent its Protective Services Department members to his house to threaten his family.

This allegation was not confirmed or denied by the university when City Press approached it for a comment in July, when the initial story broke about the alleged rape incident. Instead the university declined to comment.

The key witness also asked that the department should probe:

• Whether Integrity Forensic Solutions, a forensic company hired by the university to investigate allegations of plagiarism, was professional and impartial especially since it has emerged that it was “used by the current executives of the University of Zululand to provide predetermined reports to justify fraudulent UniZulu executive actions”;

• If the university had a policy and procedures of handling sexual harassment and rape in place and whether it was being implemented; and

• The witness also pleaded with the department to investigate possibilities of his reinstatement to his previous position at the institution as prospects of getting a job elsewhere were tainted by the university’s publication of untested allegations of plagiarism against him.

Richard's Bay police spokesperson Captain Debbie Ferreira could only confirm that the key witness opened a case in June.

The alleged victim’s family said the university seemed to be “indirectly trying to sabotage” their quest for justice by “attacking the witness whose only offence was to walk into that office, which saved our daughter from his colleague who was violating her”.

Read: Vice-chancellor ‘sabotaging’ rape case

Approached for comment, department spokesperson Madikwe Mabotha confirmed that a letter, Vile management at the University of Zululand, was received by the department.


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