Durban, South Africa – A KwaZulu-Natal man who used a fake qualification to get a job at Umgeni Water has been ordered to pay them back the money he earned during his time there.
Six years after he started working at the water utility, Sheldon Naidoo was caught out after he applied for another position, according to EyeWitness News (EWN).
Naidoo worked as a water technician from 2008.
In 2016, according to EWN, he applied for a position as a process technician, but alarm bells were sounded when UKZN said they had no record of Naidoo’s degree.
When asked for proof that he graduated, Naidoo opted to resign from Umgeni Water, EWN said.
The company took him to court and last week the Pietermaritzburg High Court ordered him to pay back the R2.2Â million (K2.2 million)he had earned from Umgeni Water.
According to EWN, despite Naidoo’s insistence that his degree was real, a student records official at UKZN testified that Naidoo was excluded from his studies because he was making no progress.
The court ruled that his degree was indeed fake.
Last year, a KZN teacher was arrested for allegedly submitting a fake National Diploma in Education certificate and prejudicing the Department of Education of almost R170 000.
Sindiso Thusi, 36, was arrested by the Hawks and released on bail.
He was former teacher at Ntombiyodumo Primary School in the Umzinyathi District.
