DURBAN - I was tipped off that bribery and corruption were evident in the selling of study places at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine last year.
After I investigated the allegations and met staff and a former employee, the first article was published in The Sunday Tribune on June 26, headlined “ For sale: A place in med school”.
There was substantial evidence to suggest a syndicate was cheating the medical school’s quota policy in order to get students in unfairly for hundreds of thousands of rand.
This led to numerous articles published regarding a syndicate operating at UKZN and possible links to it.
Several sources contacted me with information and documentary evidence regarding irregular admissions. A whistle-blower sent an anonymous e-mail with a list of students suspected to have been illegally admitted for a bribe of up to R500 000.
The allegation was that the students had lied about their race and passed themselves off as coloured to cheat the quota and secure a place.
The university subsequently instructed audit firm KPMG to conduct a forensic investigation into the allegations. A report into the findings was published in the Tribune after it was leaked to me.
During the 2017 admissions, I learnt of illegal admissions by a husband-and-wife team and a woman who apparently could get people into medical school.
One parent said the woman in question was being persistent in trying to sell him a place and even though he did not budge, she offered a discount on the bribe for admission, hoping he would grab the spot.
With the help of a colleague, we called the woman to verify if it was possible to buy a place in the health sciences faculty, and she confirmed that it was.
Having recorded our interactions with the woman, the police were informed of what we had uncovered.
This January, the Tribune learnt that UKZN’s vice-chancellor had already handed the case to the Hawks to investigate.
Four months later, arrests have finally been made.