Expose the UKZN scandal

PROGRESS is at last being made in the probe into the alleged selling of study places at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, thanks to some sterling work by investigative journalists, the timely intervention by the police and a zero tolerance stance to fraud adopted by the university authorities.

News that three suspects have been arrested by the Hawks and are to be charged with fraud and contravention of anti-corruption laws must be welcomed by all stakeholders, who want to see justice and fair play in the university’s admissions process, which has been plagued by controversy in recent years.

Apart from the suspicion of fraudulent admissions, it has also had to field questions about the fairness of its racial quota system in the admission of students to its medical school.

While the three suspects must be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, the arrests do represent a significant breakthrough by the authorities.

The arrests are, however, only the start of a process that needs to get to the very bottom of the scandal.

There are clearly three issues that have stoked this demand for places at the medical school and other health science faculties.

One is the push by many parents for their children to become doctors because it is seen as a profession that will ensure wealth and status in society. Another is the racial quota system of admission in which Indians – unlike applicants of other race groups – have to show a minimum 90% pass to be eligible.

The third and possibly the most damaging is plain corruption.

If the suspects are alleged to have sold medical and other health science places to students who did not meet the minimum requirements for their courses, they were presumably working in cahoots with a syndicate within the university.

Members of this syndicate must be exposed and brought before court to explain how deep is the rot of corruption at UKZN.

If found guilty, they must be punished with sentences that would serve as deterrents for the future.

The cancer of corruption is spreading with rampant speed across the face of South Africa, affecting both the public and private sectors at all levels.

Hardly a day passes without some major media exposure of graft in government and in major private companies.

If not curbed soon, it could grow to a stage where it becomes impossible to defeat and is accepted as the norm in our society, a situation South Africa can ill afford.