Dr Shirley Lloyd says such a step, while it may sound drastic, would go a long way towards curbing the rise in the use of fraudulent qualifications to get a job. File Picture
A FORMER key role-player in the Department of Higher Education and Training, who was closely involved with the formulation of legislation that deals with fraudulent qualifications, has called for the implementation of the law, which provides for harsh action against wrongdoers including jail time.
Dr Shirley Lloyd said it was very concerning that misrepresentation of qualifications continues to happen.
Her call comes after a former senior official in the Office of the Premier in KwaZulu-Natal was last week nabbed by the Hawks for misrepresentation of qualifications. The charges against the official, who will appear in court in March, have sparked questions about the government’s vetting system, as the official had been employed for more than 10 years at a senior level.
Lloyd called on government departments, state-owned entities and public entities to verify qualifications of future employees as a matter of course, expressing concern at the continuation of the misrepresentation of qualifications, which she said was found in “all occupations and related qualifications”.
According to Lloyd, there was sufficient framework for the government to take firm action against anyone with fraudulent qualifications.
She said the NQF Amendment Act, No 12 of 2019, which was signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on August 13, 2019, deals with the misrepresentation of qualifications, verification of qualifications, and roles and responsibilities of entities and companies to ensure verification of qualifications.
“So there is a very good legislative mechanism available through this act,” she said.
She added that the act also states that perpetrators can face a jail sentence and/or a fine, but said it needed to be put into implementation.
“This act needs to be ‘operationalised’ now.”
Lloyd added that while she did not have statistics, there had been regular instances of people providing false information about qualifications.
“The opportunity for people to provide false information is aided by sophisticated ‘syndicates’ that have the mechanisms to provide the person with false documentation that is very realistic,” she said.
The South African National Qualifications Authority (Saqa) said as the custodian of the qualifications framework and its integrity, any misrepresentation was highly concerning.
Saqa CEO Nadia Starr said they had tightened control systems and this had led to a visible reduction in the cases of fraudulent qualifications, especially individuals getting government jobs.
“We can then safely say misrepresentation has been severely curtailed since we started our verifications project, reducing from almost 200 in 2017 to fewer than 10 in 2022,” she said.
Starr said the watchdog body had set up its systems to collate and report on all misrepresented qualifications and was sometimes called on to support Chapter 9 institutions in their investigations.
Asked whether there was a centralised mechanism to determine the authenticity of qualifications, Starr said the National Learners Records Database was the national register contained within Saqa’s system that was legally mandated to hold all quality-assured achievements of full and part-time qualifications.
“Saqa’s verification unit uses this database to provide authentication service to both public and private clients,” Starr said.