Fake qualifications from Zimbabwe have been unearthed in Namibia as the government there intensifies efforts to rid the job market of desperate academic fraudsters.
Press reports said the number of people arrested for allegedly forging their Grade 12 certificates in a “massive syndicate unearthed last year has increased to 29” among them holders of fake documents from Zimbabwean colleges.
The New Era newspaper said the suspects informed the Namibian Qualifications Authority (NQA) they obtained their qualifications from colleges in Zimbabwe which upon inquiry turned out to be untrue.
Some of the suspects submitted the fake qualifications to several institutions of higher learning for entrance, while nine used the ‘qualifications’ to secure jobs in the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) and Windhoek City Police.
According to the paper the police are looking for about 200 other suspects with fake Grade 12 certificates – among them bogus doctors.
Namibian authorities warned parents to be vigilant and avoid sending their children to bogus colleges.
This development comes in the coattails of reports which said more and more Zimbabwean students prefer to study elsewhere especially in South Africa for varying reasons.
However, despite the massive brain drain occasioned by the economic meltdown and political repression, Zimbabwe remains at the top in the whole continent in terms of literacy levels.
Many people from Botswana and Namibia still send their children to Zimbabwean schools which, according to a recent survey, are still amongst the best in Africa.
Since independence, Zimbabwe has been host to many regional specialist institutions among them the Zimbabwe School of Mines and the then Zimbabwe School of Mass communication.
Source: newzimbabwe
