Warning to companies to step up process of vetting employee qualifications

THE corporate world in South Africa has been urged to be more vigilant when vetting qualifications following the scandal involving economist Thabi Leoka.

Leoka was accused of faking her PhD degree, which she claimed she had attained from the London School of Economics.

Leoka, who served as economic adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa, is said to have two Master’s degrees but no PhD.

Since this came to light, Leoka no longer sits on the boards of major companies in the country such as MTN South Africa, Remgro and Anglo American Platinum.

She was also removed from the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.

Chris Logan, a popular shareholder activist, said what had transpired was very unfortunate.

“It’s quite sad what happened to Leoka. I do not know why she would say she had a PhD, because she was already well educated. People would not think any less of her if she did not have her doctorate. She’s a very talented individual and now she is paying the price for the deception.

“For companies in South Africa, they already have to comply with many legislations and after this matter has been brought to light it seems that they will almost have to go through with a deep forensic investigative vetting process when making appointments, which is another hurdle for them,” Logan said.

He added that it was not surprising that the government had not picked up on her not having a PhD as the government was short on competence, and while their vetting process should be the most stringent, was is not.”

Jonathan Goldberg, the chairperson of Global Business Solutions, emphasised the critical need for stringent qualification verification. “The recent incident at Netcare, where Leoka’s appointment was based on allegedly misleading information, underscores the repercussions of unchecked qualification fraud. It’s difficult to come back from the reputational damage falsifying your qualifications brings. This serves as a stark reminder for companies, especially in high-ranking appointments, to conduct meticulous background checks and validate qualifications against the national database.”