E Cape MEC in fresh row over honours degree bid
Controversial Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba is embroiled in a new scandal after it emerged that she was admitted for an honours degree at Fort Hare University even though she has no junior degree.
The Sunday Times this week established that Gomba was admitted to study for the course in public administration at the university in Alice seven years ago despite not having an NQF7 qualification and without applying for recognition of prior learning (RPL) as per the rules of academia.
The university has acknowledged that Gombawas admitted for the degree — something that was under wraps until now — but declines to elaborate.
Internal university documents tabled at a faculty board meeting a fortnight ago show that Gomba should not have been admitted, because she has no junior degree and did not submit a body of work to be considered for admission under RPL rules.
Despite this, Gomba’s student status remained active and she was still eligible to register in the following two years.
“Student Gomba was also admitted with advanced certificate to BAdmin honours in public administration,” says an RPL report submitted to the faculty meeting.
“She is one of the students that should have been admitted through the RPL process but her RPL application could not be processed as the student did not submit a portfolio of work.”
The documents show Gombawas the only student who was “not processed” in 2013.
But her name appears on a list of “registered students” for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Tandi Mapukata, the university spokesperson, declined to comment on Gomba’s case but said that in general, “our rules are clear and any identified transgression is taken through formal university processes”.
Gomba, who was a councillor in the Buffalo City metro at the time she was accepted at Fort Hare, admitted she had failed to fully comply with RPL requirements but said she had been under a great deal of pressure due to the fraud scandal around Nelson Mandela’s funeral in 2013. Gomba was among those charged with fraud, but the charges were withdrawn last year.
She said the last year in which she was registered at Fort Hare was 2014.
“I enrolled in 2011 but unfortunately could not complete my research work for my honours degree so I could not graduate,” said Gomba.
“Recently I was trying to go back to finish but they told me the Buffalo City metro municipality, which was paying for my studies, never settled my bill, therefore I cannot be accepted.
“I have a certificate of a qualification from Fort Hare but I cannot remember when I got it … My studies were disrupted by the Mandela scandal, which dislodged me on many fronts, which is why I could not finish my research,” Gomba said.
“We had to follow [RPL] when we came back but I did not because it came at a time I was under pressure.” Whistleblowers at the university said the management had been determined to cover up the scandal and protect those implicated. They said Gomba’s case was just the tip of the iceberg.
“This has been happening for the longest of times … certain senior professors get away with things easily,” said one Fort Hare
official.
“The biggest thing here, even by the university’s admission, is that [Gomba] was not even supposed to be in the university system but they allowed her.
“They called a faculty meeting … The thing that she is not a registered student is news to us in the faculty because we were told recently that Ms Gomba is still registered, but maybe they are trying to hide,” said the source.