As of the 12th of January 2023, this violence has already claimed two lives, one being that of the protection officer of Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, UFH’s acting Vice Chancellor (VC).
General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), Zwelinzima Vavi, stated in an interview with 702 radio, that he believes the recent assassination attempts made against the university’s VC as being a result of capitalist-bred corruption.
Professor Buhlungu has been hailed as an academic leader who has made continuous efforts to combat university maladministration, and it is alleged that it is his anti-corruption stance that has put him in harm’s way.
Acknowledging the slow pace at which the investigation into the violence has proceeded, Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, has called for a more intensified response to the investigative efforts, which has included the creation of a special team. This special team of experts will be carefully put together by National Police Commissioner General, Fannie Masemola.
The team is expected to investigate the pattern of threats made on the lives of UFH’s staff members, and hopefully accelerate the investigation process. It will be composed of detectives, forensic analysis, crime intelligence, members of organised crime and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
Minister Cele sees the formation of this team as a necessary agent not only in producing results, but also in sending a message to criminals. His message is, "that this government will not be threatened or shaken and will certainly not back down or co-govern with criminals".
Despite their ongoing efforts, however, given the near reopening of university campuses, students and staff are left with relative unease over their own safety. Furthermore, people have also expressed a slight lack of confidence in the South African justice system, with Vavi even sharing these thoughts in his interview:
We are a country at war. Our criminal justice is dysfunctional, it produces dismal results.
Nonetheless, although talks over this special team are only in their beginning stages, the general outrage paired with the determination with which the police ministry has spoken about its coming efforts, may help ignite a greater sense of confidence in citizens, and hopefully produce results swiftly.
