Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Arts college probed for fraud at city campus
Allegations about claims for fees
THE National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is investigating alleged fraud at a national arts college whose Cape Town campus was shut down by the government last year.
The Department of Higher Education and Training shut down the Cape Town campus of the Centre for Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) in July for operating illegally.
But the academy continued to operate until December and students were shocked to find they had no place to study this year. Most said they found out about the closure only recently.
The Cape Town campus was shut down after the centre failed to submit its 2015 annual report to the department. The academy also has campuses in Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
Peter Kwele, spokesperson for the NFVF, an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture, confirmed it was looking into allegations of fraud at the centre. The fraud allegedly involved claims for student fees of R70 000, although students only paid R45 000 per year.
“We immediately instituted an investigation into the allegation that students acting independently or in collusion with an academic institution may have defrauded the NFVF,” he said. “Once this investigation is complete, appropriate legal action will be taken against any party that may have been involved in any such alleged fraudulent activity.”
Kwele stressed that the foundation did not fund institutions of higher learning and that only students applied for funding.
A former lecturer at the centre claimed R70 000 had been paid for each student – although the fees for the courses were R45 000. The former lecturer showed Weekend Argus applications requesting fees of R70 000. The former lecturer added that their estimation of centre’s income from the foundation to be at about R400 000 and the income from students to be almost R500 000.
The South African Qualifications Authority (Saqa) has raised concerns that the centre conferred two diplomas with the same authority number.
The academy’s spokesperson, Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, said it had registered a threeyear college diploma, but was “in the process of registering a four-year degree, the first of its kind in our country, and second in the world”.
Mohamed said students were offered “fourth years of studies because of the intensity of the syllabus”. “It is meant to be an addition to the three-year diploma, not a separate higher diploma. Had we intended to have a higher diploma, we would have registered it. We did not do so because we have been carefully planning a world-class multimedia degree. The CFAD had taken over premises from another city college, which used to have a four-year syllabus. We are not sure if their fourth year was registered as a higher diploma.”
She said the college believed “confusion arose with previous employees” who “digitally placed Dr (Nanda) Soobben’s signature on certificates”, which the academy would investigate.
Joe Samuels, chief executive for Saqa, said there was only one Saqa ID for a single qualification. “Any provider that offers any other qualification using this number is doing so illegally.” He confirmed a qualification with the Saqa ID number 49414 registered on the National Qualifications Framework was a diploma in integrated fine art in animation and design.
Dr Shaheeda Essack, director of the Department of Higher Education and Training’s registration of private higher education institutions, said the college remained closed. Second-year students of the Cape Town campus are at home uncertain of their future studies.
Two years ago, Sade Theron, 20, and Nikita Tse, 24, enrolled at the academy.
Theron said: “When everything unfolded late last year, it came to a point where we were uncertain about a lot of things, which caused us to be depressed.”
Tse said after they discovered CFAD had been invoicing the National Film and Video Foundation extra amounts, students discussed the issue. They thought the amount would be for students’ living expenses. She said they had been advised by CFAD to sign up for R70 000, even though their fees were R45 000. “I think they tricked us.”