Sakhela Buhlungu in conversation with Ann Bernstein
- In February 2026, Ann Bernstein talked with Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, Vice Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, to discuss the battle he is waging to defend the university against corruption and political interference.
- On his arrival at Fort Hare in 2017, Professor Buhlungu was alarmed by the systemic weakness he found, coupled with weak, outdated or non-existent controls. In 2019 he asked then-Minister of Higher Education, Naledi Pandor, to put the university under administration. He also secured a presidential proclamation for the Special Investigating Unit in 2022 to investigate widespread fraud and corruption at the university.
- Professor Buhlungu’s efforts to restore good governance have provoked violent retaliation from vested interests, including the assassination of his protection officer and the university’s fleet manager, shots fired at the homes of senior university officials, and the burning of university buildings.
- In Professor Buhlungu’s view, alongside the story of corruption and rot runs a story of the ‘resurgent Fort Hare’. The rigour of academic programmes and research outputs has improved. Today, 65 percent of staff have doctoral degrees, significantly higher than many larger universities in South Africa. The university now has seven research chairs; five of them hired in the last three years.
- Professor Buhlungu’s concerns for the future include the extent to which demand for university places far exceeds capacity and what he terms the growing impulse to treat universities like civil service departments, eroding autonomy and academic freedom.
