Bogus Teacher Found Out and Arrested
Ntombelanga Pretty Labane (40) was arrested by the Secunda-based Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Fraud Unit and has already appeared in court.
The provincial Hawks spokesperson, Captain Dineo Sekgototdi, said it is alleged that on September 1, 2016, Labane applied for a business and accounting educator’s post at Hlelimfundo Secondary School in Amersfoort in the Volksrust circuit. Labane submitted a CV, copies of a Matric certificate (which turned out to be fraudulent), proof of a B-ED degree and SACE certificates to the school principal, who informed school management to consider her application. “They then agreed that she is suitable for the post. The principal also informed the School Governing Body (SGB) and they also supported the decision.
Labane was given the requested application document and SGB members and the principal signed these on September 12, 2016. All relevant documents were sent to the circuit manager who signed it off and took them to the Department of Education (DoE) District office in Ermelo. The application was sent to the Human Resources (HR) Persal registry section and forwarded to the HR provisioning section. After checking the application, it was forwarded to the employment section where it was captured and Labane was employed,” said Sekgotodi.
She added that a whistle-blower who knew Labane did not pass matric, reported the matter to the Public Service Commission in Mpumalanga and the matter was investigated before the findings and recommendations were made. The principal, circuit manager and the district office official said they did not notice that the matric certificate was fraudulent as they do not have detectors to verify the validity of documents.
The Public Service Commission referred the matter to the Hawks Secunda-based Serious Commercial Crime investigation for further investigation during July 2022.
“During further Investigation, it was discovered that Labane does not have a Grade 12 certificate and that she wrote and failed matric four times. She then forged a matric certificate with a certificate number which belonged to another candidate who passed matric. She used the fraudulent matric certificate to apply at Walter Sisulu University where she obtained her B-ED degree. She also applied for an SACE certificate with the fraudulent matric certificate as well as for an educator’s post at Hlelimfundo Secondary School,” Sekgotodi further explained.
It was discovered that from September 2016, Labane caused an actual and potential loss of R1 292 382.11 to the DoE, income earned by Labane during her time of employment. After this discovery, Labane abandoned her position and disappeared. Once the investigation was finalised, the court issued a warrant on 16 April 2024 for Labane to appear in Court. She was traced, arrested and appeared before the Amersfoort Magistrate Court on 16 May. The case was postponed to June 13 for further investigation.
Freddy Mpangane
