Sakhela Buhlungu is a South African sociologist and university administrator whose career connects the trade-union movement with leadership at some of the country’s major universities. He led the University of Fort Hare from 2017, after serving as dean of humanities at the University of Cape Town. His departure became a contested employment matter in 2026: following his resignation, Fort Hare’s council said it terminated his employment with immediate effect on 21 October.
The council account reported by eNCA brings a new ending to a tenure marked by institutional reform, security threats and disputes over governance. Beyond that conflict, Buhlungu has a substantial scholarly record examining workers, organisational leadership and democracy in South Africa.
Sakhela Buhlungu is a South African sociology professor known for research on trade unions and for leading the University of Fort Hare from 2017. Previously UCT’s humanities dean, he built a career across research and university management. His Fort Hare departure followed resignation and disciplinary proceedings in 2026.
An Eastern Cape upbringing shaped by migrant labour
Buhlungu grew up in a large family in the Eastern Cape. His father worked on the mines near Brakpan, returning home at intervals. That family experience placed the movement of workers between industrial centres and rural households close to his own childhood.
In a 2014 UCT profile, he recalled attending Jongilizwe College in Tsolo, a boarding school associated with the homeland system. Dumisa Ntsebeza, later known as an advocate and political activist, was among his favourite teachers.
His route through education and labour organisations brought him into the questions that would occupy his academic career: how organisations exercise power, how leaders remain accountable and how social movements change over time. UCT’s profile describes his involvement in labour organisations during the 1980s and 1990s as formative.
From labour writing to university teaching
Buhlungu’s university education spans three institutions. He received his BA from the University of Transkei in 1982, followed by honours in African Studies at UCT in 1986. He later completed a master’s degree and doctorate at the University of the Witwatersrand.
UCT’s 2023 lecture biography records the Wits qualifications in 1996 and 2002 respectively. His specialism is industrial sociology and labour studies, fields concerned with work, employment relations and the institutions through which workers organise.
BIOGRAPHY
Sakhela Buhlungu Biography: Academic Career and Fort Hare Exit
Oct 22, 2026
Oct 22, 2026
8 min read
Published
Updated:
Sakhela Buhlungu is a South African sociologist and university administrator whose career connects the trade-union movement with leadership at some of the country’s major universities. He led the University of Fort Hare from 2017, after serving as dean of humanities at the University of Cape Town. His departure became a contested employment matter in 2026: following his resignation, Fort Hare’s council said it terminated his employment with immediate effect on 21 October.
The council account reported by eNCA brings a new ending to a tenure marked by institutional reform, security threats and disputes over governance. Beyond that conflict, Buhlungu has a substantial scholarly record examining workers, organisational leadership and democracy in South Africa.
Sakhela Buhlungu is a South African sociology professor known for research on trade unions and for leading the University of Fort Hare from 2017. Previously UCT’s humanities dean, he built a career across research and university management. His Fort Hare departure followed resignation and disciplinary proceedings in 2026.
An Eastern Cape upbringing shaped by migrant labour
Buhlungu grew up in a large family in the Eastern Cape. His father worked on the mines near Brakpan, returning home at intervals. That family experience placed the movement of workers between industrial centres and rural households close to his own childhood.
In a 2014 UCT profile, he recalled attending Jongilizwe College in Tsolo, a boarding school associated with the homeland system. Dumisa Ntsebeza, later known as an advocate and political activist, was among his favourite teachers.
His route through education and labour organisations brought him into the questions that would occupy his academic career: how organisations exercise power, how leaders remain accountable and how social movements change over time. UCT’s profile describes his involvement in labour organisations during the 1980s and 1990s as formative.
From labour writing to university teaching
Buhlungu’s university education spans three institutions. He received his BA from the University of Transkei in 1982, followed by honours in African Studies at UCT in 1986. He later completed a master’s degree and doctorate at the University of the Witwatersrand.
UCT’s 2023 lecture biography records the Wits qualifications in 1996 and 2002 respectively. His specialism is industrial sociology and labour studies, fields concerned with work, employment relations and the institutions through which workers organise.
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An archived CV hosted by the University of Coimbra’s Centre for Social Studies supplies the detail of his transition into academic work. Between 1992 and 1994, he wrote for COSATU’s shop-stewards’ magazine. In February 1994, he moved to Wits’ Sociology of Work Unit as a research officer.
That move combined research, public education and teaching. By 1996, his lecturing included industrial democracy, work and industrial relations, research methods and industrialisation. The subjects show the continuity between his labour-movement experience and the questions he taught students to investigate.
Studying the tensions inside democratic organisations
Wits’ record of his doctoral thesis identifies the author as Buhlungu, Maxwell Sakhela. The thesis examines democracy and modernisation in South African trade unions, focusing on the period from 1973 to 2000.
Its central problem is the relationship between democratic worker control and the administrative demands of running a durable organisation. As unions grew and their members gained political rights, full-time officials assumed increasingly influential roles. The thesis examines the tensions and competing approaches that accompanied those changes.
Buhlungu’s work therefore extends beyond a history of union victories. It asks what happens inside movements after their influence grows, and how leadership, efficiency and participation can pull in different directions.
His book A Paradox of Victory: COSATU and the Democratic Transformation in South Africa was published by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press in 2010, as recorded in the WorldCat library catalogue.
The Open British National Bibliography’s contents record shows the book’s range: union organisation after 1973, global economic restructuring, changing membership and leadership, and COSATU’s future. These themes place institutional change at the centre of his scholarship.
Taking responsibility for university leadership
Before Fort Hare, Buhlungu served at several South African universities, including Wits, Johannesburg and Pretoria. At Pretoria, he was a sociology professor and deputy dean responsible for postgraduate studies and ethics.
He became UCT’s dean of humanities in January 2014. The appointment moved him into the management of a broad faculty while retaining his connection to scholarship and teaching.
UCT’s November 2016 announcement of his Fort Hare appointment described his research on trade unions, democratic transitions, activism and leadership. It also recognised his academic innovation during his period as dean.
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Accepting the move, Buhlungu described Fort Hare as an institution of “such great historical significance in the country”. The university offered a setting in which academic leadership carried responsibilities extending beyond individual departments or research programmes.
Reform and insecurity at Fort Hare
Buhlungu took up leadership at Fort Hare in 2017. In the university’s account of his February 2026 opening address, he described an institution that had faced weak governance, unstable administration and disruption to teaching and research.
He presented the “Decade of Renewal” strategy as an attempt to strengthen governance, academic programmes, infrastructure and accountability. He also pointed to four consecutive unqualified audit outcomes and completed infrastructure projects. These were achievements he outlined in the university’s own account of his tenure.
Security became a defining concern. His driver and protection officer, Mboneli Vesele, was killed on 6 January 2023. A South African Police Service statement confirmed the killing and announced a multidisciplinary team to investigate threats and attacks affecting university staff.
News24’s report of Vesele’s funeral recorded Buhlungu’s tribute to him. The killing made the personal danger surrounding university leadership starkly visible. It does not, by itself, establish responsibility for other disputes or subsequent employment decisions.
The suspension, resignation and dismissal in 2026
The South African Parliament’s statement of 31 March 2026 noted that Fort Hare ’s council had placed Buhlungu on precautionary suspension. That stage was distinct from a final disciplinary outcome.
He resigned in September. In its report on the resignation dispute, the Mail & Guardian described his challenge to the council’s position on notice requirements. He maintained that his resignation was valid. That was his position in the earlier dispute, before the reported October dismissal.
On 22 October, eNCA reported the council’s account that his employment had been terminated the previous evening following disciplinary findings. The reported misconduct concerned senior appointments and public statements. These are employment-disciplinary matters; they should not be described as criminal convictions.
Fort Hare had already announced Professor Wezile Chitha as its incoming vice-chancellor. Its 17 October announcement said he was expected to assume office in the first quarter of 2027.
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Public family details
Dr Beata Mtyingizana-Buhlungu was identified as Buhlungu’s wife in April 2026 reporting on her public letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa. The account also referred to their children and the effect of institutional conflict on family life.
The family’s circumstances form part of the public account of his tenure, but the children’s names and private routines are unnecessary to understanding his academic career.
Career timeline
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Sakhela Buhlungu?
He is a South African sociology professor and university administrator known for labour scholarship and his leadership of Fort Hare from 2017.
What is his full name?
Wits’ doctoral repository records his name as Maxwell Sakhela Buhlungu. His professional publications and university communications commonly use Sakhela Buhlungu.
What did he study?
His qualifications include a BA from the University of Transkei, African Studies honours at UCT, and master’s and doctoral qualifications at Wits.
What is his best-known book?
A Paradox of Victory: COSATU and the Democratic Transformation in South Africa, published in 2010, is a significant part of his labour-studies work.
Was he a dean at UCT?
Yes. He became dean of humanities in 2014 before moving to Fort Hare in 2017.
What happened to his Fort Hare position?
Following a suspension and resignation in 2026, the council said it terminated his employment on 21 October. That reported decision followed an employment-disciplinary process.
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