Icebergs, it is common knowledge, are much larger beneath the surface than show above it. Corruption seems pretty much the same. What hits the headlines are the extreme and dramatic examples, but beneath the surface there is something that more closely resembles the much larger matter of business as usual.

Tthis thought has been swimming around in my mind in connection with the events at the University of Fort Hare, not so much concerning the killings and attempted assassinations, more the routine everyday aspects of corruption. The most recent examples of this to be reported on concern bogus qualifications and the routine fiddling of financial claims. These are hardly reserved for this particular institution of higher education, and are becoming more a matter of how things are done. With regard to bogus qualifications, the great irony is that the people who occupy the jobs concerned often seem no worse than others who have genuine qualifications!