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The University of South Africa (Unisa) has noted with utter dismay and disappointment the news reporting in The Sowetan edition of Monday, 22 November 2021 about the conferment of an honorary doctorate, purportedly by Unisa, on veteran music producer and theatre doyen, Mr Sam Mhangwani.

Unisa wishes to state categorically that it has NOT conferred any such honour on Mr Mhangwani and that any assertion to this effect is simply NOT TRUE.

What makes the matter even more shocking and worrisome is that the university, having been tipped off about the planned awarding of the honorary doctorate, warned Mr Mhangwani, through a member of his family and in writing, that this had all the hallmarks of a scam as there was no such decision by the university to confer any honorary degree on him. The university further advised that Mr Mhangwani or the family should report the matter to the police.

Unisa is disappointed that, in spite of its warning and advice, the event to award the fictitious honorary doctorate to Mr Mhangwani appears to have proceeded, with some of the pictures from the event forming part of the Sowetan article and Mr Mhangwani quoted in the article as confirming that he received this honorary doctorate from Unisa.

Whilst the university acknowledges that lifetime achievements and contributions to society by individuals of the ilk of Mr Mhangwani are worthy of recognition, there are however formal processes followed by institutions such as universities, leading to the conferring of awards such as honorary degrees. Unisa, like all universities worldwide, has a formal process regulating the nomination and approval of honorary degrees, which is managed by the university itself from the nomination to the graduation ceremony.

We reiterate that no nomination and approval for the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Mr Mhangwani were conducted in the university and, most importantly; no event or graduation ceremony was hosted by the university to this effect.          

‘As a university, we distance ourselves from this matter completely and take umbrage at the misuse of the Unisa name for criminal conduct. We have directed relevant officials in the university to urgently attend to this matter with the aim of bringing to book anyone found involved in this illegal action and to protect the reputation of our university’, said Unisa’s Acting Deputy Registrar, Mr Matthews Kokong.                   

Issued by UNISA