Cape Argus reports that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing new Public Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet after Fort Hare University officials implicated her in the institution’s qualifications fraud scandal.

After matric, Kiviet allegedly skipped undergraduate studies, registered and obtained an Honours degree in administration and a Master’s degree in public administration, and had a non-credit-bearing shortcourse certificate with hand-written results. Disgraced former Fort Hare professor Edwin Ijeoma was allegedly at the centre of a qualifications scam that operated at the university. In August 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation allowing the SIU to probe allegations of corruption and maladministration at the university. It authorised the SIU to focus on the alleged qualifications scam, which encompassed that Ijeoma allegedly recruiting politicians and public servants for registration for post-graduate degrees in public management and administration without “students” having gone through undergraduate programmes. The SIU confirmed the investigation into Kiviet, but added that the unit did not issue updates on ongoing investigations. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwanya didn’t respond to queries. DA spokesperson on public service and administration, Dr Leon Schreiber, is preparing a request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to obtain proof that Kiviet committed “degree fraud” at the university.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Soyiso Maliti at Cape Argus

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