Top academics at Unisa, including vice-chancellor Puleng LenkaBula, splashed out more than R500,000 of the university’s money on an ANC anniversary jamboree held in Cape Town in January.
This has been revealed by higher education and training minister Nobuhle Nkabane in a written reply to a parliamentary question from the EFF.
Nkabane told the National Assembly this week that LenkaBula led a 25-member delegation to Cape Town earlier this year, at a cost of R577,002 — excluding flights and car hire — where 10 of them attended the ANC’s fundraising birthday gala dinner.
Neither Unisa nor Nkabane disclosed how much they paid for the ANC dinner. But attending the January ANC fundraising gala dinner was a costly affair, with a seat at the table costing between R27,000 and R150,000.
Responding to a question from EFF MP Sihle Lonzi, Nkabane detailed how LenkaBula and her executives splurged R492,452 at the four-star President Hotel in Cape Town's Bantry Bay on “accommodation, dinner, conference package [and] shuttle cost to and from Unisa Cape Town regional office in Parow” at the time of the ANC fundraiser.
The academics and executives splurged a further R81,550 at four- and five-star hotels and lodges at Gansbaai — such as the Sea Star Cliff and the Benguela — where whistle-blowers reported they had gone “sightseeing” at the nearby town of Cape Agulhas.
“There was no accommodation at Cape Agulhas and accommodation was secured at the next town in Gansbaai (Sea Star Cliff, Sea Star Lodge and Benguela). The cost for Benguela (R41,550) includes accommodation and lunch and dinner for the whole delegation,” said Nkabane in her response.
This money could have been used for much more productive things such as helping students, clearing student debt, registration fees and many other programmes. I mean, we know the issues affecting students
— Sihle Lonzi, EFF MP
Unisa spokesperson Boitumelo Senokoane denied that they had gone to Cape Town for the sole purpose of attending the ANC’s birthday dinner.
He said the trip was part of their annual “management lekgotla”, which rotated among provinces each year, and that 10 of them had attended the ANC gala dinner.
“The lekgotla and other meetings of the university are often held rotationally across our nine regions. In 2025, the lekgotla was held in the Western Cape region, hosted in the President Hotel and the Unisa Parow Regional Learning Centre, where management took time to engage in oversight work while in the region,” said Senokoane.
“The day visit to the Gansbaai area forms part of the exposure of management to the work that the university has instituted through the catalytic niche area of marine studies and the natural sciences [biotechnological studies].”
He said all meetings and travel commitments of the university were compliant with the university’s relevant supply chain management policies and governance processes.
“It is the prerogative of the principal and vice-chancellor to determine the size, shape and the agenda of the management planning meetings of the university.
“Respectfully, we can imagine that if this question is taken seriously or entertained, then the floodgates would open for people to even question, for example, why the president of the republic hosts meetings in Cape Town or elsewhere when his main office is in Pretoria.”
Senokoane did not explain why a senior employee had been suspended for blowing the whistle on the Cape Town trip, saying the university did not “discuss HR and disciplinary issues in the media”.
Lonzi said he was unmoved by Nkabane’s response to his question, and Unisa’s explanations.
“It would be extremely problematic for any public institution to use public funds and resources to fund a political party programme.
“This money could have been used for much more productive things such as helping students, clearing student debt, registration fees and many other programmes. I mean, we know the issues affecting students.”
He said the minister’s response did not make clear whether university money had gone into an account used for political activities, which would not only be wasteful but unethical.
ANC MP Tebogo Letsie, who chairs the higher education portfolio committee, said he had previously raised the matter with Unisa’s leadership during an oversight visit to the institution.
“They responded that the president of convocation, who’s a council member, had agreed to go to the ANC January 8 events for networking ... they said the gala dinner is [best] because you get to sit with ministers or the president at the same table to lobby for what you want, which made sense to all of us who were there.”
Nkabane’s office had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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