Johannesburg - At the height of his 2005 corruption trial in the Durban High Court, President Jacob Zuma’s former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was asked by senior prosecutor Billy Downer why he falsified his qualifications.
In answering, Shaik was calm and frank. He told Downer that his brothers were highly qualified and he felt he had missed out.
This was after it was discovered that he did not have an MBA, contrary to what was stated in the brochure of his company, Nkobi Holdings.
He also admitted he did not have two degrees, from the US and the UK, and was not a published writer, although his CV listed these accomplishments.
Shaik’s tale perhaps gives an insight into the mind of a fibber and why so many people fake their qualifications in a quest to secure top positions that come with high salaries.
South Africa has a long list of men and women in high-profile jobs, in government and in the private sector, who have been found to have falsified their qualifications by brandishing embellished CVs.
The spotlight has fallen most recently on “Dr” Daniel Mtimkulu, the executive manager of engineering at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), who is alleged not to have a BTech in engineering or a Master’s or doctorate.
He has also been under fire as he is not registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa. Registration is a legal requirement for practising engineers.
In explaining why people who should know better find themselves cheating about their credentials, Wits University associate professor of psychology Sumaya Laher refers to “the dark triad of personality”.
She says such people tend to display such traits as Machiavellianism, narcissism and pyschopathy in clinical settings.
In the case of people in high towers, there was a tendency for Machiavellism – all they wanted was power and status.
The dictionary describes this trait as being or acting in accordance with the principles described in Machiavelli’s 16th-century treatise The Prince – where political expediency is placed above morality. Craft and deceit are used to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler.
Laher says internal factors influence people to behave in a certain manner.
“External factors are when institutions or organisations fail to do proper checks and balances, allowing people to get away with false credentials – and then others decide to do likewise.
“Internal factors are what happened in the mind of, say, (former cabinet minister) Pallo Jordan, when someone makes a conscious decision to lie about their credentials. A person can’t say it happened by mistake. Why would a person do that, what goes through his mind?
“The answer could be, ‘Just because I am so-and-so, I can get away with it’.
“If we look at the dark triad of personality, where certain personality traits such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy will manifest themselves in a clinical setting – in the workplace – it is common among successful people to display Machiavellianism; they crave status and power and need success and stature.
“Internally, people are motivated by a need for power. ‘I will get it and it doesn’t matter what it means or takes to achieve it, but I will get it.’
“In South Africa, if you look lower down, when we recruit people, we do integrity testing – while people in high positions are not subjected to that. Besides, who would think that someone like Jordan for instance – someone higher up who knows what he is doing – would fake his credentials? And that is where the problem lies.”
However, Professor Malehoko Tshoaedi of the sociology department at the University of Pretoria says it all boils down to the culture and the race politics waged in all institutions.
Asked to comment on why more black professionals than whites were being fingered for embellishing their credentials, Tshoaedi says this is not a black phenomenon – there are just as many whites in similar situations, but they are protecting one another.
“Blacks are competing for these positions with whites and Afrikaners in parastatals and universities. You need to understand that whites stay in one institution for many years and upward mobility for them has always been based on loyalty. The culture in some of these institutions is that you stay loyal to me and I will reward you.
“Democracy and politicisation have messed up this system of loyalty and it is frustrating for many whites.
“If you come in as a black person and assume that your qualifications are going to earn you promotion, then you are wrong.
“There is competition for resources and the pressure is high. The dominant culture is that which rewards loyalty and patronage, and we are not familiar with this culture. Hence we don’t stick because we come from a struggle culture and we expect change – and when we find that it’s not there, we say, I am not my mother so I am not going to put up with this nonsense.
“There is a lot of resistance to change in these institutions. We can be in a workplace for 10 years without knowing, ordinarily, what qualifications our colleagues have.
“I work with my colleagues and I have not seen their CVs. If they say they have a Master’s or a PhD, then I take it as is. People will check your qualifications only if there is conflict. We shouldn’t take it at face value that black people are cheats.
“It is always done in well-calculated moves. Look at how the Prasa issue started. First it was the science around the trains that was not right. But they knew that they had done their research. Look at the (former Wits Professor, Malegapuru) Makgoba issue, they wanted him out.
“Look at academia and the issue of plagiarism. There is a fine line between your work and the work of others. You can take one sentence, but if somebody is out to get you and they expose you and you never recover.”
The Sunday Independent