Two arrested in Prof Kamwendo murder
Fresh reports from South Africa allege that professor Gregory Kamwendo, a Malawian who was working at the University of Zululand in South Africa as dean of the faculty of arts was killed after uncovering a fraudulent PhD syndicate at the institution.
Kamwendo was shot dead at his home in Empangeni in May this year. Two men, including a lecturer at the same institution, have since been arrested for his murder over the weekend.
According to the Sowetanlive, an online publication based in South Africa, Kamwendo’s colleague, (whose identity has been concealed), allegedly hired a hitman for R10 000 (about K540 000) to kill the professor because he had uncovered a fraudulent PhD syndicate in the university that involved three members of the academic staff.
The Sowetanlive reported that a source close to the investigation, whose identity could not be named to protect his identity, said the university was facing a crisis of fraudulent PhD degrees being granted to students and the suspect in question had been suspended for the alleged criminal activities.
“The professor was fighting against this corruption. There are a lot of people who have received PhDs through fraud,” said the source according to the online publication.
“They arrested the men late last week. It was a joint operation with the Empangeni tracing team, a detective from Sandton and Bheki Thusi, a private investigator from KwaZulu-Natal,” said the source.
The source was also quoted as saying Kamwendo had received death threats before he was killed.
“An employee that has been arrested is a professor at the university. He was bitter and [was] telling him [late kamwendo] that he was going to kill him. The professor ended up opening a case of intimidation against him,” he added.
Commenting on the development, a family member Titus Mnesa said as a family they are following the development with keen interest and hope they will be updated on any step of the trial.
Malawi’s Consul General in Johannesburg South Africa Frazer Nihoriya, said he was yet to read the latest published updates as he was looked up in a meeting.
