The future of the deputy city manager of the eThekwini Municipality Kim Makhathini hangs in the balance after an internal investigation by the City Integrity Committee Investigations Unit (CIIU) found that Makhathini faked her qualifications.
On August 2022, the Independent Media led an investigation into Makhathini who is the head of human resources in the eThekwini Municipality. At the time Makhathini flatly denied that she did not possess the qualifications she had recorded in her CV and the online application when she applied for the position of head of human resources.
In her application, Makhathini recorded that she had a master of arts in social science degree which she claimed to have obtained from the University of Glasgow, and a national diploma in human resources obtained from Damelin.
However, an internal report by the CIIU dated March 1 2023, found that Makhathini doctored her qualifications and it recommended disciplinary action be instituted against her for misrepresenting her qualifications.
According to the report, Makhathini was appointed head of HR on November 1 2014 with the minimum requirement being a “relevant bachelor’s degree, relevant postgraduate qualification and seven year’s experience at the management level of which two years must be at senior management level”.
However, in Makhathini’s case, the CIIU found that she did not possess the national diploma from Damelin and that although her Glasgow master’s degree in social science could not be verified, the degree is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in social sciences in South Africa.
The certification manager at the Damelin, Andrew Gilchrist, confirmed that Makhathini’s national diploma in human resources which she claimed was obtained from the institution was not registered with SAQA on the National Qualification Framework (NQF), and also did not have SAQA ID nor the credit value.
“The certificate was a short learning programme with four modules completed within 80 hours. The qualification in human resources management in the name of Kim Makhathini could not be verified as authentic and correct. The qualification should be considered as fraudulent,” Gilchrist stated.
On the verification of Makhathini’s master’s degree in social science claimed to have been obtained from the University of Glasgow, the CIIU report stated that it could not be confirmed as Makhatini refused to sign a consent form allowing the verification process as required by the University of Glasgow.
“The investigation team liaised with Kim Snyders: manager of Ratification of Foreign Qualification (SAQA). A copy of the qualification and confirmation letter issued by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) submitted by Makhathini, was forwarded to Snyders to confirm whether the same was verified by SAQA.
“According to Snyders, due to the qualification having been issued in 1994, SAQA did not have archives from that time. She further stated that she was unable to do a 100% verification, but she was certain from the documents presented that it was issued by HSRC. In clarifying the point, Snyders confirmed that from face value, it seemed like the documents were issued by HSRC. However, this could not be confirmed with records due to no access to archives for the period in question.
“The investigation team subsequently liaised with David Males, Verification Services, Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD), to ascertain whether the BA Social Science Degree submitted by Makhathini had been issued by the University of Glasgow. According to Males, the university would only accept a hand-signed HEDD consent form signed by Makhathini,” read the CIIU report.
According to the CIIU, Makhathini refused to cooperate with the investigation but questioned why the investigation team was interested in her qualification.
The CIIU concluded that Makhathini was dishonest and committed fraud when she misrepresented her qualifications and called for disciplinary action to be taken against her.
Approached for comment, Makhathini questioned why the Independent Media was interested in her qualifications, adding that she had the qualifications which were verified by the municipality.
“I filled a form here at work for me to have them do the verification, which they did. If you are wondering how I ended up in Glasgow, I obtained a scholarship through the British Council,” Makhathini said.
Makhathini didn’t respond to our questions which included the reasons why she refused to sign the consent form to allow the investigation team to verify her qualification, whether she had lied in her application for her current position, and did not reply when asked about the investigations report that her unverified qualification of masters degree in social sciences was equivalent to a BA degree in South Africa.
In August last year, the Independent Media sent a query to the eThekwini head of communications Lindiwe Khuzwayo asking how the verification process was conducted. At the time Khuzwayo defended Makhathini, saying the city was satisfied with Makhathini’s qualifications.
However, last week, when the Independent Media went back to Khuzwayo with the same enquiry into Makhathini’s qualifications and the findings of the CIIU investigation team, Khuzwayo confirmed there was an investigation.
“The eThekwini Municipality confirms that there has been a CIIU investigation relating to Ms Makhathini’s qualifications. The report is receiving the necessary attention from municipal structures. Finally, information at the disposal of the Communications Team at the time of your initial query was that there were no issues with Ms Makhathini’s qualifications,” Khuzwayo said.
Falcons Investigations