Police are waiting on the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death of a professor found in UWC’s swimming pool last week.
Provincial police spokeswoman Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said an inquest had been opened.
One of the university’s pool staff had found Professor Michael Wessels’s body last Thursday, said UWC spokeswoman Cherrel Africa.
The professor had been a “regular swimmer” at the pool.
Professor Wessels was the chairman of the arts faculty’s English department.
The department’s dean, Professor Duncan Brown, described Professor Wessels as “a wonderful man, an exceptional researcher and teacher” who would be sorely missed.
“He was one of those whose passing makes the world seem a poorer place, but who leaves us all better off for having had the chance to know him.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them and also with his colleagues and friends in this very painful time.”
The professor is survived by his wife, Lindsay, and his sons, Tao and Akira.
