Aspiring teacher stymied by missing police clearance certificate

AN ASPIRING teacher says he has been unable to start his career as he spent the past 10 months waiting for the police to issue him with a clearance certificate.

Thando Dyamara says he needs the certificate, which will allow him to be accredited by the South African Council of Educators (SACE), in order to find a job.

He said he applied for the certificate at the Khayelitsha police station in April last year.

Dyamara graduated from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) with a B-Tech in teaching. “I was told that my fingerprints were in Mitchells Plain and that was prolonging it.

“I was confused as to why they were in Mitchells Plain, because I applied in Khayelitsha.”

But national police commissioner Khehla Sitole’s spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said they were aware of

Dyamara’s matter, and the certificate was issued on August 2.

“The applicant was notified through SMS that the certificate is ready for collection and that necessary arrangement should be made to collect it.

“The certificate was kept at a client service centre counter, to be collected by a person or a courier service, however, the applicant failed to make due arrangements.

“The duplicate police clearance certificate was issued on December 5 and collected by Sipho from SKYNET Courier Services on behalf of Mr Dyamara on December 6. The issuing of a duplicate certificate was informed by an enquiry made by the applicant on November 29.”

SACE spokesperson Themba Ndhlovu said unfortunately they were unable to help clear up the confusion. “We have not had a situation like this one. We heard of minor issues here and there, but nothing like this one,” Ndhlovu said.

He said since January last year police clearances were needed by all teachers, in order to be accredited.

“It is very important to get a clearance, because we get a lot of negative media coverage and flak from the government that as SACE we do not do enough background checks.

“So we use this to give us an indication of the person and to see whether they are clean and fit to be a teacher.

“It is also a way to maintain the high integrity of the profession,” Ndhlovu said.