ActionSA Eastern Cape chairperson Athol Trollip on Monday called for Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane to step down following news of his allegedly fraudulent master’s degree.

It has been reported that Mabuyane obtained a fraudulent master’s degree from the University of Fort Hare (UFH) as revelations of a research proposal allegedly put together for him by the academic staff at the university surfaced.

Trollip accused Mabuyane of using his office for personal gain instead of serving the poor who have to deal with high unemployment and a lack of service delivery.

In April ActionSA marched to the Eastern Cape Office of the Premier to highlight the true state of the province under Mabuyane’s leadership.

According to the party, the UFH offered a “made to order” degree vending service to well-connected politicians who abused the public purse to secure their self-aggrandising phoney qualifications.

“It is not the first time that Premier Mabuyane’s unethical conduct has exposed the lack of integrity expected of a leader of a provincial government. In January, we bemoaned the fact that the Premier managed to evade investigation into how he improperly benefitted from money that was misappropriated from the Winnie Madikizela local municipality,” said Trollip.

The UFH has recently made headlines as it has been marred by allegations of corruption, maladministration, murders and assassination attempts of its vice chancellor and his deputy.