News24 reports that a man who presented Umgeni Water with a fake chemical engineering degree has been ordered to repay the R2.2 million he earned over the eight years he worked there.

The water board took Sheldon Naidoo to the Pietermaritzburg High Court in a civil case, demanding that he pay back the money after it was found he had forged his degree. It said it would not have employed Naidoo in its graduate programme in 2008 if it had known he did not have an engineering degree. The programme was designed for, and intended for, graduates. When he applied to get into the programme, Naidoo had put forward a copy of his degree certificate and his academic results. At that time, Umgeni Water accepted his qualifications without question and did not validate them. He resigned in November 2016 after he was asked about the legitimacy of his qualifications. In his ruling, Judge Rob Mossop said that after careful consideration, he had no doubt Naidoo was an "untruthful witness". "The documentary evidence put up by the plaintiff is convincing and overwhelming in its effect. I must thus conclude that the degree certificate claimed by the first defendant to be his is a forgery, as are the academic results upon which he relies,” the judge ruled. He ordered Naidoo to repay R2,203,565 with interest.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jeanette Chabalala at News24
• Read too, ‘Engineer’ must pay back millions after court pours cold water on qualification, at Sunday Times Daily (subscriber access only)

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