Today's Labour News

Belinda Bozzoli and Andricus van der Westhuizen write that the ANC is pushing through an amendment to the National Qualifications Framework Act that will have severe effects on job creation, the smooth running of business and the government, and access to educational opportunities.  

The bill has reached the final stages of parliamentary approval.  Ostensibly it seeks to reduce qualifications fraud by exposing and recording the hundreds of people who falsely claim they hold particular qualifications to obtain jobs, and the many institutions that offer qualifications without the necessary accreditation from the SA quality assurers.  However, it will do this by creating an immense database and forcing, by law, every employer and educational institution to use it.  The implausibly huge database will contain details of every single qualification ever offered legitimately in SA as well as who offers it; every single qualification that has been falsified; the name of every single person who has obtained a qualification (both domestic and foreign); the name of every single person who has attempted to commit fraud through claiming qualifications they do not have; and every single institution that has fraudulently offered a qualification.  The writers say that creating and managing it will be a monumental task.  All employers and educational institutions will be required to consult this database in respect of every applicant for a job or educational place in their institution, and to report apparently fraudulent ones.  If 400 people apply for a job, all 400 will have to be checked on the database.  In the view of the writers, the imposition of yet more red tape on business will have a negative effect on job creation.

• Read this full opinion piece by Prof Bozzoli, shadow higher and education and training minister, and Van der Westhuizen, deputy shadow higher education and training minister, at BusinessLive

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