Unisa has instituted a disciplinary procedure against Vincent Mdunge for the “submission of an alleged fraudulent certificate”.
|||Durban -
Minutes before taking the stand to testify in the trial of former police spokesman, Vincent Mdunge, Unisa’s head of student discipline tried to serve a notice on the former policeman to appear before a disciplinary committee.
Mdunge has pleaded not guilty in the Durban Regional Court to fraud and uttering charges after he allegedly used a fake matric certificate to join the police force in 1987.
The notification had not been served by Unisa on Mdunge before as the university did not have his address. Gerhardt Waldeck tried to serve it on Mdunge outside the court, but he had refused to take the notice, Waldeck told the Daily News. Arrangements were later made to give it to Mdunge’s attorney.
Giving evidence on Monday, Waldeck confirmed that Mdunge had passed Criminal Law 3 and Investigations of Crime at the now defunct Technikon SA in 1996.
However, Unisa had instituted the disciplinary procedure against Mdunge for the “submission of an alleged fraudulent certificate”.
A requirement for registration was the supplying of a valid certificate, he said.
Waldeck said the decision to discipline was based on affidavits from the Department of Education.
In 1997 Mdunge had received his National Diploma in Police Administration. If found guilty, Waldeck said, the diploma would be withdrawn.
On Friday the court heard that the highest qualification received by Mdunge was a Standard 8 according to Richard Chiliza, a senior administrator in the Department of Basic Education.
Chiliza, the State’s first witness, said that according to the department’s records, Mdunge failed the 1985 matric exam and the 1986 supplementary exam.
Mdunge, who resigned from the police last year when allegations emerged, has been charged with four counts of fraud and uttering.
The State contends that he used the fake matric to secure a job and subsequent promotions in the police. If found guilty, the State wants to recoup some or all of the R3.6 million Mdunge earned during his more than 20-year career, as it believes he was not entitled to it.
Mdunge’s lawyer, Saleem Khan, told the court that Mdunge had not been given the money “for sitting on his laurels” but had earned it for doing his job.
Khan said that Mdunge’s high school teacher would be called to testify that he had passed matric.
Two of Mdunge’s fraud charges relate to his presentation of the alleged fraudulent certificate to the SAPS when he joined the police.
Another fraud charge relates to his presentation of the alleged fraudulent certificate to Unisa .
Mdunge pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Chiliza said the certificate Mdunge used to obtain the police job was that of a person who completed matric in 1983.
He said the certificate was invalid because the exam number on the certificate was 83, not 85, the year that Mdunge claimed he had written matric.
According to Chiliza’s testimony, Mdunge received 40 percent for Zulu, 23 percent for Afrikaans, 33 percent for English, 18 percent for maths, 21 percent for economics and 34 percent for accounting.
Khan told the court that in 2010, Chiliza had contacted Mdunge to tell him that he had discovered a number of false matric certificates of policemen and government officials and asked him to investigate.
Chiliza denied speaking to Mdunge. Khan said he would get cellphone records proving Chiliza had spoken to Mdunge.
He also denied Khan’s assertion that he had met Mdunge at the department’s Malgate building in Durban to discuss fraudulent matric certificates.
Daily News