The University of Zululand has taken a former lecturer to court in a bid to stop him ‘defaming’ the institution and vice-chancellor Professor Xoliswa Mtose. The Mercury reports the university also wants Hlakaniphani Jamile to tender a public apology for and retract statements which, it claims, he caused to be published in the press. The case came before the KZN High Court (Durban) on Friday.

According to the founding affidavit, it centres on criminal charges – understood to pertain to fraud and corruption – which Jamile laid against Mtose last year. Mtose said Jamile had laid criminal charges against her after he underwent a disciplinary inquiry and hearing ‘in which he was found guilty of various acts of misconduct and dishonesty’. She said the allegations in the affidavit he deposed to – and on which the charges were based – were ‘untrue and unfounded’, as well as ‘vexatious and defamatory’.

The university listed the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) as a second respondent because, it explained, Jamile was a member of the union and ‘could have been acting under a mandate issued by (Nehawu)’. For the union, provincial paralegal officer Thulani Gabela denied this in an affidavit and said the union had never made any defamatory statements about the university or Mtose. The report adds Nehawu and Jamile are opposing the application. Jamile has yet to file papers.

Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)