'Zuma man' leaves top varsity

By Quinton Mtyala and Michelle Jones

UCT has parted ways with Paul Ngobeni, a leading member of a brains trust which claimed to have freed President Jacob Zuma of fraud and corruption charges.

The university announced last night that Ngobeni, who is the Deputy Registrar, Legal Affairs and Secretariat at UCT, had agreed to resign. This followed the dropping of a UCT disciplinary inquiry and charges against Ngobeni.

This comes hours after Ngobeni stated that UCT's law faculty was in the grip of a "white racist gang" of lecturers who had only one thing in common, a hatred of Western Cape Judge President JohnHlophe.

Ngobeni is an ardent campaigner for Zuma to appoint Hlophe to head the Constitutional Court.

In a shock statement last night "on the Paul Ngobeni tribunal", UCT Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price said disciplinary proceedings against Ngobeni, culminating in an external tribunal which sat from September 2008 to May 2009 had been concluded, and that he and Ngobeni had agreed to a joint statement.

The statement reads: "The UCT policy on internal employee discipline stipulates that disciplinary matters are confidential, because the object is to restore the working relationship wherever possible. Given the public interest in this matter we take the unusual step of releasing this statement. We do not however believe that any details of a disciplinary nature should be disclosed.

"The parties, having participated in the internal disciplinary process and having due regard to the complex nature of the matters that gave rise to the inquiry, have reached a mutual agreement to annul the disciplinary inquiry and abandon all charges brought against Dr Ngobeni."

Price adds: "In acknowledgment of the complexity of this matter, the hardship that it must have caused the parties involved, I wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused, particularly to Dr Ngobeni.

"Having satisfactorily resolved the matters, Dr Ngobeni has expressed his wish to leave UCT to pursue other interests and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavours."

Ngobeni could not be reached last night. He did not answer his cellphone and did not respond to messages.

His "white racist gang" outburst follows a spat between UCT's newly appointed chair of constitutional governance, Pierre de Vos after a recent radio debate on SAFM.

De Vos said last night: "So he was asked to leave. This is the first I hear of it. I'm surprised. I have no idea what the hearing entailed or what the charges entailed or what evidence was heard."

Hours before Price's statement was released Ngobeni said UCT's law faculty was beset by a racist "group of gangsters" on its staff bent on entrenching white domination of the bench,

It followed De Vos, and Ngobeni accusing each other of being liars after debating the merits of a possible nomination of Hlophe to head the Constitutional Court.

On his blog, constitutionally speaking.co.za, De Vos denied Ngobeni's claim he "hated" Hlophe insisting his words, published on the website, were selectively quoted.

De Vos said although he welcomed debate, Ngobeni had failed "to stick to the facts" and had instead made personal attacks against him.

"Some of the issues I have raised are based on incontrovertible facts. I don't want to make it personal, I want to debate these issues; that's how democracy works," said De Vos of his public debates with Ngobeni.

For his part, Ngobeni said De Vos' claims that he did not "hate" Hlophe was a lie confirmed by his own writing.

Former head of the FW de Klerk Foundation Centre for Constitutional Rights Paul Hoffman said Ngobeni seemed to have landed his UCT position without a proper background check.

Last night he said: "What UCT needs to do is ask themselves the question, if they had Googled his name would they have hired him at all."

quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on June 22, 2009