The Price of Reform: Why Sakhela Buhlungu Now Stands Alone
By Zola Pinda:
Vice Chancellor and Principal of Fort Hare, Professor Sakhele Buhlungu, who is suspended. (Image: Supplied)
The suspension of Professor Sakhela Buhlungu is not a routine governance episode. It is a familiar institutional moment in South Africa’s public life — the point at which those who confront entrenched dysfunction begin to stand alone within the very systems they are mandated to reform.
At the University of Fort Hare, this is not a technical dispute about procedure. It is a struggle over control, accountability, and the future character of an institution long marked by contestation over authority and governance. In such environments, reform is never absorbed neutrally. It disrupts settled interests, exposes informal networks, and inevita...