---
title: "Another UCT leadership crisis: 34 complaints, secret findings and a VC in court"
description: "A new leadership row unfolding at the University of Cape Town has seen Vice-Chancellor Mosa Moshabela taking the UCT Council to court over investigations into his conduct."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "EXCLUSIVE"
author: "Rebecca Davis"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/rebeccadailymaverick-co-za/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-07-another-uct-leadership-crisis-34-complaints-secret-findings-and-a-vc-in-court/"
published: "2026-08-07T16:08:58"
updated: "2026-08-07T16:20:03"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1542
---

# Another UCT leadership crisis: 34 complaints, secret findings and a VC in court

> A new leadership row unfolding at the University of Cape Town has seen Vice-Chancellor Mosa Moshabela taking the UCT Council to court over investigations into his conduct.

By Rebecca Davis · Published 7 August 2026, 18:08 SAST · Updated 7 August 2026, 18:20 SAST

## Key points
- UCT vice‑chancellor Mosa Moshabela has sued the university council after an external probe into 34 complaints found no discipline but flagged “certain concerns”.
- The Ombud recorded 39 visits about the VC — almost 70% from women — with six matters classified as sexual harassment or discrimination.
- A separate incident — in which Moshabela’s driver reportedly used a master key to enter a female academic’s home on the VC’s instruction — triggered a fresh investigation now placed in abeyance.

## Content

Less than four years after the University of Cape Town was plunged into a governance crisis over allegations concerning[then vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-10-03-dark-days-accusations-of-capture-and-governance-instability-rock-uct/), Africa’s top university is facing fresh leadership turmoil involving her successor.

Court papers filed this week reveal that UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela has taken the university’s own council to the Western Cape High Court after an investigation into 34 complaints from UCT staff and students concerning his conduct.

The investigation ended with the UCT Council deciding that no disciplinary proceedings would follow. But the council simultaneously recorded that the investigators’ report had raised “certain concerns” about Moshabela’s behaviour.

The current issue of particular concern to Moshabela, however, appears to be the fact that the council has ordered a further probe into a separate incident involving entry without prior permission into a female UCT academic’s home.

Daily Maverick sent detailed questions to UCT, in response to which spokesperson for the University (including the office of the vice-chancellor) Elijah Moholola gave the following statement: “The University of Cape Town (UCT) confirms that legal proceedings have been initiated involving the Vice-Chancellor and the university's council. As this matter is now before the courts, it would not be appropriate to comment on the details or merits of the case”.

**Complaints included sexual harassment**

Moshabela took office in August 2024.

Court papers reveal that less than a year later, on 30 June 2025, UCT Council member Malcolm Campbell informed Moshabela that UCT’s Ombud Nashira Abrahams had received 21 complaints from staff relating to “your interactions with them”.

Campbell indicated at the time that an independent investigation commissioned by the council was a possibility.

By December 2025, the Ombud had recorded 39 staff and student “visitors” concerning Moshabela, eight of which were marked “closed” and 31 “open” - referring to whether the matters remained active in the Ombud’s records, rather than whether the allegations had been proved or disproved.

The related court documents caution that the 39 recorded visits to the Ombud over the VC do not necessarily represent 39 separate people.

The Ombud records do not reveal the complainants’ identities, but in the majority of cases the records indicate their race, gender, and whether they were students or staff members.

Almost 70% of the complaints regarding Moshabela were brought by women, with the majority of these recorded as African.

Two-thirds involved professional, administrative and support staff at UCT, six involved faculty members, and five involved students.

Most of the matters involving the VC were classified by the Ombud as “Evaluative Relationships”, a broad category covering difficulties arising where one person exercises managerial, supervisory or other authority over another.

In simple terms, this category could cover issues ranging from allegations of abuse of power or bullying, to grievances over performance reviews.

But six of the open Ombud matters were categorised differently: three as sexual harassment, two as discrimination based on culture and one as discrimination based on gender.

For these six matters, the Ombud withheld even race, gender and staff-status details because she believed they could enable Moshabela to infer the complainants’ identities.

Nothing in the court papers reveals the details of what conduct was alleged in those six cases.

A council subcommittee subsequently recommended that all 31 open complaints be formally investigated, with senior advocates Alex Freund SC and Tanya Golden SC appointed for this purpose in February 2026. Three further complainants emerged within a month, with the probe’s mandate accordingly expanded to encompass these.

The investigation was to be conducted confidentially, with complainants’ identities protected unless they consented to disclosure.

But it was agreed that without this consent, complaints against Moshabela could not be pursued.

Only one complaint would ultimately be put to Moshabela for a substantive response, and the documents before court do not disclose the relevant allegations.

Nor do they explain what became of the other complaints, including those categorised as sexual harassment and discrimination.

Fairbridges Attorneys, the firm appointed by the UCT Council to assist the investigators, wrote in a 9 April 2026 letter to Moshabela’s lawyers that the reduction in complaints ultimately put to the VC “simply reflects the practical operation of a confidential investigation in which the consent of complainants, and the state of the evidence, are relevant considerations”.

**No discipline, but behavioural concerns**

Freund and Golden completed their investigation in late May 2026.

On 30 May, Council decided that no disciplinary proceedings should be instituted against Moshabela in respect of any of the 34 complaints.

But the council also found that the investigators’ report pointed to “certain concerns” about Moshabela’s behaviour which should be discussed with him.

Council further directed Moshabela to undergo executive coaching and an annual review with feedback from staff. The same measures were merely “strongly encouraged” for other members of UCT’s senior leadership.

The fact that the VC was “directed” to have coaching and subject himself to an annual review, while other members of the executive were only “encouraged” to do the same, appears to be a sore point for Moshabela - who highlights the discrepancy more than once in his affidavit.

“A genuinely developmental programme does not single out one individual for compulsion on the strength of undisclosed ‘concerns’ while inviting everyone else for coaching,” he argues.

What the behavioural concerns actually were remains unknown.

The court papers also reveal that the UCT Council had by this stage turned its scrutiny on the Ombud herself.

In March, Freund and Golden were instructed to investigate Abrahams’ conduct during the events leading up to, and during, the Moshabela investigation.

The reason for that instruction, and the investigators’ conclusions about the Ombud, are also not disclosed.

**The Forest Hill incident**

The one matter which remains potentially alive is separate from the original 34 complaints.

During their investigation, Freund and Golden learned of an incident at UCT’s Forest Hill staff accommodation on 13 November 2025 involving Moshabela, a Campus Protection Services officer named Grant de Monk who also served as the VC’s driver, and a female UCT faculty member.

Daily Maverick is not naming the academic in question due to the sensitivity of the circumstances.

According to the investigators, De Monk entered the academic’s residence without her prior permission. He subsequently told them that he had done so while carrying out an instruction from Moshabela “to confidentially investigate \[her\] wellness”.

Moshabela’s version appears to have been that the academic’s mother had contacted him because she was unable to reach her daughter and was worried. He says he was outside Cape Town and instructed De Monk only to check whether she was safe.

According to Moshabela, De Monk and another official entered using a master key and found the academic asleep in her bedroom.

Moshabela claims her mother subsequently thanked them for assisting, but appears to have produced no evidence to this effect.

The court papers do not reveal the source of this complaint.

The UCT council ordered Freund and Golden to conduct a further investigation into the incident. That investigation has since been placed in abeyance, rather than terminated, and could potentially produce further recommendations to Council.

Moshabela’s court challenge argues that the UCT Council cannot formally act on concerns about his behaviour while refusing to tell him what those concerns are. He says he has never received the investigators’ report into the 31 complaints, was not given an opportunity to answer concerns before the council issued the coaching directive, and has effectively been subjected to compulsory remedial measures on the basis of findings he cannot see.

He is also challenging the Forest Hill investigation, including the decision to appoint the same investigators who had already learned about the incident and brought the matter to Council’s attention.

**Déjà vu at UCT**

For UCT, these developments will be particularly concerning because of the echoes of what happened under Moshabela’s predecessor.

In 2019, then Ombud [Zetu Makamandela-Mguqulwa recorded](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-19-chronicle-of-a-problem-foretold-uct-vice-chancellor-phakengs-shortcomings-were-flagged-before-her-appointment/) that 37 people had approached her with concerns about former VC Phakeng’s professional conduct, reporting that they felt “bullied, silenced, undermined, rebuked and/or treated unfairly”.

Daily Maverick’s [October 2022 investigation](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-10-03-dark-days-accusations-of-capture-and-governance-instability-rock-uct/) subsequently documented allegations of bullying, intimidation and a culture of fear and secrecy at the university, alongside a remarkable turnover in UCT’s senior leadership.

The UCT council’s attempts to address concerns about the functioning of Phakeng’s executive included plans to create a more “psychologically safe” environment and providing Phakeng with leadership coaching.

Phakeng left the vice-chancellorship in March 2023 under an early-retirement agreement which saw her walk away with a total pay package worth over R12-million. An independent investigation subsequently found [serious governance failures](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-11-01-independent-report-spits-fire-at-ucts-recent-leadership-blasting-mamokgethi-phakeng/?dm_source=blocks-grid&dm_medium=card-link&dm_campaign=inform&dm_position=10) during her tenure.

The court papers now before the High Court do not establish that Moshabela has behaved in the same manner as his predecessor, but the parallels are difficult to ignore.

For the second consecutive UCT vice-chancellor, numerous concerns about the VC’s dealings with other members of the university community were brought to the Ombud; the UCT council commissioned external investigators to determine what was going on; the Ombud’s own conduct became embroiled in the affair; and the council turned to executive coaching as part of its response.

The UCT Council is scheduled to hold a special meeting on Saturday 8 August to consider the demands and objections raised by Moshabela’s lawyers, with the Forest Hill investigation on hold pending that meeting. **DM**