Acting registrar confirms a number of students caught, expelled
CFO declines to comment
Mbabane – A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) hired in one of local big media companies was allegedly expelled at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) for alleged forged Form V results.
The incident is said to have occurred between the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 while the CFO, whose name has been deliberately withheld, was enrolled as a student.
According to sources privy to details, the CFO was doing his second academic year when authorities of the institution discovered that she used forged results to apply and be admitted at the kingdom’s highest learning institution.
The name of the local media company can also not be disclosed due to the sensitivity of the matter and ethical reasons.
The media company is then alleged to have hired the CFO soon after completing her studies from another institution of higher learning where she allegedly obtained her qualification. This is after she had been expelled by UNESWA for the alleged forged results.
Reached comment, UNESWA Acting Registrar Richard Masuku remarked, “Once a student had been found to have gained admission at the university using forged results, the institution press charges and they are subsequently arrested. Many students who had been found to have applied at the university using forged results had been charged and arrested.”
Masuku added that it was well stipulated by the university regulations that once a student had been found to have committed this offence, they ought to be expelled by the university. The Acting registrar said even if the implicated student was caught after they had completed and graduated, the institution reserved the right to withdraw the certificate.
Drawn for comment, the implicated CFO decline to comment. When called, she asked to be reached at a later stage but did not pick up her calls when reached again several times.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security, through the Scholarship Board, reserves the right to withdraw any scholarship offer in an event it is discovered that a student applied using untrue or misleading information. The application form directly states or call upon aspiring students to declare that the information provided in the application and the supporting documentation is true and complete. The aspirant must indicate that they understand that the department reserves the right to withdraw or cancel any offer made on the basis of information that proves to be untrue or misleading.
In a similar incident, in 2013, a teacher who had been in the teaching service for 19 years was charged for allegedly forging her O’ Level Certificate.
The Malindza High School teacher, Zanele Sihlongonyane, was arrested and charged with uttering.
Sihlongonyane is alleged to have used the same certificate to obtain admission to William Pitcher Teachers Training College.
She is alleged to have eventually graduated from the college and was later hired as a qualified teacher by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).
Sihlongonyane (then 47) of Lonhlupheko in the Lubombo region was alleged to have, during the year 1994, at or near Mbabane unlawfully, falsely and with intent to deceive uttered an O’ Level Certificate to Knowledge Ngwenya.
She is alleged to have done this knowing very well that the said certificate was forged and in the process committed the offence of uttering.
Ngwenya was employed by the Ministry of Education and Training as an investigator.
The exact prejudice or loss that was suffered by government through Sihlongonyane’s alleged act was, however, not stated in the charge sheet.
The teacher was arrested by police officers from the Hhohho Commercial Crimes and Fraud Unit.
She appeared before then Mbabane Magistrate Siphosini Dlamini (now acting Pigg’s Peak Principal Magistrate) who warned her to appear before court on May 24 of that year for setting of her trial date.
This was again not the first teacher to be arrested for allegedly forwarding forged certificates when applying for a teaching post. More than 20 teachers have appeared at the Mbabane Magistrates Court for similar offences and some of them had been convicted after pleading guilty.
The TSC then declared that it would be cracking down on all teachers suspected to have used fraudulent means when applying for jobs.
Some of the implicated teachers are currently on suspension while others were eventually fired by the TSC.
Meanwhile, the University has a Theft, Fraud and Corrupt Conduct policy.
The policy includes the following definition of theft, fraud and corrupt conduct.
Definitions
Fraud includes theft, criminal deception; making false representations to gain an unjust advantage; and abuse of University property or time.
Theft is the dishonest appropriation of the University’s property with intent to deprive the University of it permanently.
Corrupt conduct includes improper use of influence or position and/or improper use of information or other improper acts or omissions of a similar nature.
Examples
Examples of some activities covered under these definitions are:
• taking inducements to mark a student assessment more favourably or award a contract for the provision of goods or services;
• misuse of one’s position to gain an unfair or unjust advantage;
• misuse or abuse of telephone, fax, computers, and other equipment to run a private business, whether for profit or not-for-profit;
• operation of a private business using University facilities and time;
• misuse of corporate credit card;
• misuse of petty cash;
• unauthorised removal of equipment, parts, software, and office supplies from University premises;
• submission of fraudulent purchase orders;
• submission of fraudulent applications for reimbursement;
• submission of exaggerated or wholly fictitious accident, harassment or injury claims;
• misuse of sick or family leave;
• using University-paid travel, ostensibly for business, but, in fact, where the principal purpose is private;
• falsification of time records; and
• damage, destruction or falsification of documents.
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