Cape Town - A family man, a person with integrity, intelligent and loyal to the vision of transforming the University of Fort Hare (UFH) until the end.
This is how the UFH community remembered slain Mboneli Vesele.
The university held a live-stream memorial service for Vesele on Thursday, who was the executive protection officer for UFH vice-chancellor Professor Sakhele Buhlungu, at the Alice campus in the Eastern Cape.
A sombre mood filled the auditorium, with one Vesele’s five grieving children having to be escorted out of the venue due to high emotions.
The day also proved to be hard for his security colleagues, with some deciding to stay outside.
His widow, family, the UFH executive committee, staff, Student Representative Council and other dignitaries were also present.
Vesele was a former defence force soldier, a former senior protective officer of an ex Buffalo City municipality mayor, and had been Buhlungu’s bodyguard for about five years.
The 52-year-old was assassinated inside the VC's tinted vehicle outside the residence.
Speaking at the memorial, Buhlungu said in November 2017, a drastic change happened, when he could no longer be himself.
He lost his freedom to drive himself, and Vesele was appointed for his safety.
He said, however, that he gained something even bigger, which was a brotherhood.
“When he came I lost my life but gained something even more supreme. I gained a brother for almost six years, a person I could confide in and a colleague.
“I learnt to trust deeply and gained a confidant.
“It was an obese relationship. We had no rules for each other.
“Today I’ll have to start from zero and learn to trust again to that level of depth and intensity.
“He was a gentleman who forced me to up the game in my dress code and aim for his level of neatness otherwise people would have thought he’s the VC and not me.
“I remember the other time he turned me back home because I wore different socks.
“A genuine relationship which was unscripted” said Buhlungu.
He said Vesele also came at a point of a major turbulence where he didn’t know peace due to planned protest actions, smear campaigns, to a point that he had requested for the university to be placed under administration.
“Smear, slander and threats by shooting at houses is the strategy and it won’t stop. It escalated to an assassination of fleet manager Petrus Roets.
“Now they came for us with an aim of finishing us because they want to steal in a brazen way, doing it by force.
“Vesele did his job, let us allow him to rest, he did his part and the ball is now in our hands to ensure the vision of renewal constitutes.
“I had the privilege to speak to President Cyril Ramaphosa and he dispatched the three ministers who came here. My question stands, Mr President, are we safe? I am going nowhere so many people and mostly Mr Vesele have hope in me,” he said.
Another colleague said: “We need transformation. Fort Hare must reclaim its former glory within the global space, not just within the country.”
The Security Cluster led by the Police Minister Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister of State Security Zizi Kodwa and the National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola visited the university on Wednesday evening.
Cele said there was criminality creeping in at higher learning institutions that they need to deal with.
He admitted that they found gaps when they visited and got briefed about the incidents and investigations done by provincial police.
Cele has requested a multi-disciplinary team that has been established to closely investigate all incidents at the university to be given time to probe and they will give a report at a later stage so that there are no further speculations.
The high level team will include detectives, forensic analysts , crime Intelligence, members of organised crime and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).
Cele said the high-level intervention was necessary.
“It is quite clear that the local police are just not working fast enough in making arrests and this newly established national team, through its work, must send a strong message to criminals that this government will not be threatened or shaken and will certainly not back down or co-govern with criminals.
“As we start the academic year, we can’t afford to have anyone, be it a student, a lecturer and even a groundsman or cleaner of this institution feel uneasy about their safety.
“This is why the team must work closely with university staff and the intelligence community to crack the cases that will see the culprits go to jail.
“This, I am sure, will guarantee that this respected institution is not turned into a killing field,” said Cele.
Cape Times