On Saturday 24 June amaBhungane accepted the resignation of its chairperson Professor Tawana Kupe.

On 13 June 2023 we learned through the media of his resignation as vice-chancellor of the University of Pretoria. The allegations contained in the media report were previously unknown to us.

Sam Sole, the amaB director, messaged Prof Kupe on 13 June to ask about the developments we’d read about.

Prof Kupe called Sam Sole on 14 June 2023. During the conversation with Sam, Prof Kupe verbally offered to step down from the amaB board.

Given Prof Kupe’s committed service to amaB we determined that we would put in place a process for him to step down at the next board meeting, scheduled for 17 August 2023.

On Saturday, 24 June 2023, another media report was published with further allegations that were also new to us.

Based on this report, we made the decision to accept Prof Kupe’s earlier offer to step down.

Sam emailed and messaged Prof Kupe on Saturday, 24 June, accepting his offer to step down from the amaB board with immediate effect.

Sam also notified the rest of the amaB board.

Together with the board we will follow the statutory processes required to give effect to this decision.