UPDATE: Unizulu SRC president’s marks updated ‘legally’
Public Protector probe ongoing as Unizulu clears SRC president of 'degrees-for-sale scam' wrongdoing
THE University of Zululand says it has finalised its investigations into the ‘so called degrees-for-sale scam’ in which the current SRC President Wandile Mathebula ‘was implicated’.
In September the Zululand Observer reported that the Office of the Public Protector had launched a preliminary probe into allegations against Mathebula and other officials after receiving a letter of complaint.
Also read: Unizulu SRC president under scrutiny
‘The University can now officially confirm that Mr Mathebula’s marks had not been altered illegally and he has been cleared from any wrongdoing whatsoever,’ read a statement issued by Unizulu spokeswoman, Gcina Nhleko.
‘All marks were checked and verified,’ she said.
‘Changes were approved and statements were taken from individual lecturers explaining changes and one needs to understand our system to understand changes.
‘Previously the system only captured one mark. If a student qualifies for either a re-examination, special examination, supplementary examination or aegrotat (illness related) examination, a lecturer had to access the system and change the mark,’ Nhleko explained.
‘Proper documents with necessary approvals must accompany changes. All approvals were complied with, hence there is no wrongdoing.
‘Since July 2016 improvements have been made and now exam marks and final marks as well as test and assignment marks are all captured on the system,’ Nhleko confirmed.
Ongoing
Meanwhile spokesperson for the Office of the Public Protector, Oupa Segalwe on Wednesday confirmed that a preliminary investigation into allegations against university officials and Mathebula was still in progress.
‘The matter is still at preliminary investigation stage, which is part of the assessment to establish whether or not there is a need to proceed with a fully fledged investigation,’ Segalwe said.
In July, Mathebula said he was looking forward to any investigation into his academic records because he had worked hard for his degree.
But at the time when questioned about specific discrepancies in the records, Mathebula demanded to know who released his results.
He then refused to answer any question about the alleged alterations until given the name of the source.
The Zululand Observer has a copy of a file titled ‘Study Record Log File Dump’ which is reported to be the electronic trail of all the alterations made to Mathebula’s record on the internal ITS system of the university.
According to the record the following alterations were made between 1 January 2015 and 18 July 2016:
• Communication and research skills module: Mark changed from 20% (fail) recorded in June 2015, to 50% (minimum pass mark) in August.
• Educational management module: Mark changed from 27% (fail) recorded in November 2015, to 50% (pass) in February 2016.
• School practicum module: Mark changed from 0% recorded in November 2015, to 67% (pass) in February 2016.
‘I gave students laptops and food, why don’t you write about that and leave my results alone?’ Mathebula asked.
Meanwhile, one university employee alleged and maintains she was asked to make some alterations on Mathebula’s results, but refused to do so on two occasions.
‘I asked for that instruction to be placed in writing so I am covered should there be any inquiry and it was the last time I heard of that.
‘The next thing when I checked on the system, the results were changed,’ she said.
She has since been suspended on unrelated charges and has been fighting for her job through the CCMA.
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