|
Sex claims at university 'lies'
14/01/2007 14:17 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Claims by an official at the University of KwaZulu-Natal that the vice chancellor and the chairman of the university council sexually harassed her have been dismissed as lies, City Press reported on Sunday.
A tribunal commissioned to investigate the claims - chaired by retired judge Alan Magid - found that the allegations by the dean of the faculty of management studies, Professor Pumela Msweli-Mbanga, against vice vhancellor prof. Malekgapuru Makgoba and council chairman council dr. Vincent Maphai were false.
Msweli-Mbanga made the charges in writing after the university council decided to institute disciplinary action against her and two other senior colleagues over the irregular awarding of a master's degree to the university's chief financial officer, prof. Kanthan Pillay.
Msweli-Mbanga was found to have overruled two external examiners who had recommended that Pillay not receive the degree. It is alleged that she overruled the two examiners because she was involved in a sexual relationship with Pillay.
Details of their relationship were revealed in a report by professor and political activist Fatima Meer, and former education minister Sibusiso Bhengu. They had been asked to probe the nature of the pair's relationship. They also found that Pillay had paid Msweli-Mbanga R80 000.
City Press sources said that the Magid tribunal had found that Msweli-Mbanga was a liar and that her sexual harassment claims against Makgoba and Maphai were untrue.
The tribunal also recommended that its findings be released to the public due to the high degree of interest in the issue.
Mac Mia, acting chairman of the council, said that he was not yet aware of the findings and that council would only receive the findings "sometime next week".
Maphia and Makgoba who both took leave of absence pending the investigations also said that they had not heard about the tribunal findings or its recommendations.
"Nobody has briefed me about the latest issue. I am absolutely in the dark," City Press reported Maphia as saying.
|
News
