640 SA Officials Found To Have lied About Their Qualifications
The incidents of misrepresentation of academic qualifications are on the rise and last year, a number of public figures where exposed for fake academic qualifications.
Yesterday, the department disclosed that 640 cases of fraud or misrepresentation of academic qualifications were uncovered during a verification process. This took place during a briefing to the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on public service and administration.
THE National Department of Public Service and Administration admitted that hundreds of officials were last year found to have been employed with fake academic qualifications.
South Africa’s ambassador to Japan, Mohau Pheko, is the latest public official to join a growing list of those who have been caught faking their academic papers.
Pheko was exposed by the Financial Mail last week for claiming she was an academic doctor with a PhD, although she never graduated and the university she supposedly graduated from was shut down several years before the date she claimed to have completed her studies.
ANC stalwart Pallo Jordan was forced to resign as an ANC MP last year after the Sunday Times exposed the fact that he was also not a PhD graduate as he had claimed for decades.
SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng was also found guilty of faking his matric certificate by the office of the public protector.
Ministry spokesman Brent Simons said yesterday that while there was certainly a problem with qualifications in the public sector, it represented a small percentage of the sector’s 1.3 million employees.
“The vast majority of employees are honest, law-abiding citizens,” he said, adding that the national department had already started taking steps to address the dishonesty in the public service last year.
When asked whether any steps were being taken to address the 640 cases of fraud and misrepresentation, Simons said some of the culprits had been disciplined and some dismissed.
He said the department would, in future, be putting far more emphasis on professionalism in the public service. This would be achieved through a range of initiatives such as training and mentorships and through the National School of Government.
“There are issues of fraud where applicants tamper with the certificates, change the dates, change the name. These . . . are then forwarded to the issuing institution to take up as a civil matter,” Pillay said.
“We’ve been informed by SAQA that the Minister of Higher Education treats fraudulent representations or tampering with qualifications in a serious light and is driving a process to address this.”
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has repeatedly spoken out against the rising phenomenon of top government officials faking their academic qualifications.
He has called for a national fraud register, which would publicly list individuals who had committed qualifications fraud.
Pillay said the department and SAQA were also struggling to verify the qualifications of thousands of teachers and nurses who graduated before 1992, because their papers had not been electronically captured.
The State Security Agency was assisting SAQA with verifying qualifications following the removal of private sector companies from the process.
