PHOTOS: Fort Hare University confirms that a second bodyguard for Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, has been killed in a hit-and-run car crash

Another personal protector of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor, Prof Buhlungu’s detail has died in a car accident on his way to the Alice campus in the early hours.

The protector was a key witness in the upcoming trial against the recent five arrested.

According to a source at the university – a bakkie drove into institution owned vehicle.

The suspect fled the scene, the university’s private security tracked down the man and brought him to the King Williams Town Police Station.

“We are all a bit shocked,” said spokesperson JP Roodt. 

Earlier in April, five people were arrested during the investigation into the murders of the University of Fort Hare’s fleet manager, Peet Roets, and the Vice-Chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu’s bodyguard of five years, Mboneli Vesele.

A source said the guard killed on Sunday would have been a witness to the cases before court. While details remain sketchy, its understood the deceased, who was the second man hired to provide personal protection to Buhlungu, was on his way to Alice campus on Sunday morning when the incident took place.

He was also rumoured to be a crucial witness in the upcoming murder trial of Buhlungu’s first slain body guard.

The higher educational institution, whose student alumni includes struggle icon and South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela, is now a battle ground rife with corruption and assassinations.

The hit-and-run comes three months after Buhlungu’s first body guard, Mboneli Vesele, was gunned down in what is suspected to have been an assassination attempt.

That shooting took place outside the vice-chancellor’s Alice residence and Buhlungu escaped unharmed.

He said Buhlungu had just returned home after conducting university business when the incident took place.

“Gunfire was opened on the vice-chancellor’s university vehicle and various residents of Alice heard it. The university’s security and protection service division analysed footage and it is clear that an automatic rifle was used in what appears to be a planned assassination attempt.”

Fort Hare University confirms that a second bodyguard for Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, has been killed in a hit-and-run car crash.