Durban - Public servants who lie about their qualifications may face jail time. The Department of Higher Education says it wants to pursue criminal charges against those who fake or misrepresent their education credentials.
A spokesman for the department, Khaye Nkwanyana, said on Monday that it wanted those officials who lied about their qualifications to be prosecuted.
The department was busy with “legal consultations”.
“This case (former police spokesman Vincent Mdunge, found guilty of forgery and fraud) sets precedents for other similar cases to follow because previously we were not aware that a person could be convicted for falsifying qualifications. In fact, we had started consultation with state attorneys to ascertain if this was possible,” he said.
Previously those officials who were found to have faked their qualifications were either expelled or dismissed, but no criminal charges were pursued.
“One example that comes to mind involved teachers in KwaZulu-Natal who were discharged after the Department of Education found their qualifications to be illegitimate,” said Nkwanyana.
Yesterday’s sentencing of former KZN provincial police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge to five years in jail for forgery and fraud over his faked 1986 matric certificate was an important development and possibly a precedent-setting case.
“We welcome this conviction because it sends a strong message to those who may be in possession of fake qualifications or considering committing this offence and it is the first of its kind in the country,” said Nkwanyana.
He said last year Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande directed the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) to audit all public officials’ credentials and had wanted those who lied to be “named and shamed” in a national registry.
“We have started with the national departments and ours was the first to go through the process. After the national department, SAQA will do the provinces then local government,” he said.
He said the most recent figures were not available, but the Department of Public Service and Administration revealed in March that at least 640 public officials had lied about their qualifications.
“We really encourage all employers, even those in the private sector, to start with the verification of their staff’s qualifications so that we can eliminate this culture of misrepresenting.”
Between July and December last year the qualifications authority verified 19 512 records belonging to 13 182 people who had applied for government jobs. Of those, 92 records belonging to 91 people were confirmed to be fraudulent.
Mdunge was found to have falsified his 1986 matric certificate, and an investigation revealed that he had failed both his senior certificate and supplementary exams in 1986.
He used the fake certificate to gain employment as a police officer in 1987 and obtained a national diploma in police administration from Unisa in 1997.
The five-year jail term handed down by Durban regional magistrate Thandeka Fikeni came as a shock to Mdunge, but he was granted bail pending an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Mdunge’s attorney Yusuf Omar said they would lodge an appeal against the sentence and conviction in the next 20 days.
Institute for Security Studies researcher Dr Johan Burger said sending Mdunge to jail could be considered harsh for a white-collar crime.
“His position as a senior police officer who was expected to uphold the law probably influenced the judge’s decision. White-collar crime is a huge problem in this country, so the court wanted to make an example of him,” he said.
Burger said the questioning of the police’s credibility, with officers being accused of corruption, might have also had an influence.
Qualification Verification Services’ Danie Strydom said South Africa had excellent academic institutions of higher learning, but they were being discredited by the increase in the number of cases in which people lied about their qualifications.
“Faking a qualification is fraud and that makes it a crime. It should really be stamped out so that other countries can have confidence in the South Africans they employ,” he said.
The Mercury