Durban - Minutes after former police colonel Vincent Mdunge was found guilty of fraud and forgery, his defence team told the media they would appeal against the conviction.
Mdunge, who was a spokesman for the provincial police until he resigned last year, was found guilty in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday of two counts of fraud and one count of forgery over a fake matric certificate.
Mdunge, who had 27 years of experience, appeared stoic in the dock when judgment was handed down.
He referred questions to his advocate, Saleem Khan.
Khan told journalists that they would apply for leave to appeal against the judgment next month.
Mdunge had pleaded not guilty to the charges and said there was a vendetta against him, which had resulted in his criminal prosecution.
He said the certificate was given to him by a teacher after he successfully wrote his senior certificate in 1985.
Magistrate Thandeka Fikeni said she had been satisfied by the evidence in the State’s case about the fraudulent certificate.
Education department officials testified that official records showed that Mdunge wrote matric in 1985 and failed.
He also failed three supplementary exams he wrote in March 1986.
The officials also testified that the examination on the certificate that Mdunge claimed he was awarded had an exam number starting with “83” and not “85” which referred to the year the exams were written in.
The officials also said that the exam number on the certificate appeared to be the number that Mdunge had been assigned when he wrote his Standard 8 (Grade 10) exams.
Fikeni said it was “not clear” that Mdunge had been employed in the police service owing to his being in possession of a matric certificate.
She said the defence had led evidence that Mdunge had been a special constable, who had been absorbed into the police service, and those constables had not required a matric certificate.
She said the State had not disputed this evidence and therefore she found him not guilty of fraud in relation to his being employed by the police. However, Fikeni did find him guilty of fraud in relation to obtaining a salary from the police, but said the amount of R3.5 million, which was stated in the charge sheet, would have to be reduced.
Police officers can be promoted up to the rank of warrant officer if they have passed Grade 10.
Therefore The Mercury understands that the State will have to lead evidence about what salary Mdunge earned after he was promoted above the rank of warrant officer and argue that this was fraudulently obtained.
The court also found Mdunge guilty of fraud for presenting the matric certificate to Unisa to enrol for a diploma in police administration.
The case was adjourned to December 17 for sentencing. Mdunge is out on bail.
The Mercury