Johannesburg - Serge Belamant, the president and CEO of the company that has been handling SA’s social security payouts, has seemingly become the victim of a qualification scam as it has now been revealed that his degree is not authentic.
Belamant’s PhD, from little-known Burkes University, was called into question through social media posts. He is just the latest South African to be questioned on this forum after both economist Chris Hart and journalism lecturer Professor Anton Harber had their degrees questioned.
Hart’s BCom has since been verified, although he did not major in economics, and Harber responded to his questioners by pointing out he never said he had a PhD and is an adjunct professor.
This time, however, social media hit it on the head, as Belamant’s degree has turned out to be non existent.
What's the big deal is someone fakes a PhD? I've been pretending to be a criminal for 27 years. https://t.co/QrqtyDhyA6 via @YahooFinance
— Sam E. Antar (@SamAntar) February 25, 2016
In a statement issued on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday, the dual-listed Net 1 UEPS says it has “become aware of recent allegations posted on social media questioning the validity of the honorary PhD in Information Technology and Management conferred by Burkes University upon Serge Belamant, Chairman and CEO of Net1”.
Read also: Hart’s qualifications revealed
The payments company says it subsequently had two members of its board conduct a review “of the circumstances under which the honorary degree was awarded to Belamant”. This included an examination of the email correspondence between Belamant and Burkes University and an attempt to obtain any available information about Burkes University.
Net 1 explains that, in early May 2003, Belamant received an email from a person who appeared to be associated with “Burkes University” stating that he had been “short-listed by the Honorary Doctorates Committee” for the conferment of an honorary doctorate degree.
Belamant responded by asking for details about the selection criteria and process, in reply to which he had a response that discussed criteria, which appeared to him to be relevant to the awarding of an honorary degree, the statement says.
“Belamant provided the information that he was asked to submit, including proof of his memberships of professional societies, his academic records, patents he filed, his nomination for the South African chapter of the World Entrepreneur of the Year award and his work published in information security textbooks.
“Belamant recalls making a donation to what he believed was a foundation associated with Burkes University. On May 23, 2003, the honorary degree was awarded to Belamant.”
However, Net 1 has since discovered that the university is currently listed as “not a valid UK degree awarding body” according to the Higher Education Degree Datacheck and also does not have a website.
Net 1 turned over $150 million in its last quarter.
The board believes Belamant followed the honorary degree award process in good faith and that at the time, Belamant did not doubt the integrity of the process or the validity of the degree. However, in light of the review, Belamant and the board have come to the conclusion that it is likely that Belamant was the unfortunate victim of a scam and that the honorary degree was not legitimate.”
IOL