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Exposed as a fraud — how companies can avoid bogus employee hires

Exposed as a fraud — how companies can avoid bogus employee hires
A screenshot of Thabi Leoka's bio on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
Victoria O’Regan
By Victoria O’Regan
19 Jan 2024
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Amid a rising tide of fake qualifications in South Africa, experts say more robust vetting processes are needed. This, in the wake of the Thabi Leoka PhD saga.

Thabi Leoka’s elusive PhD inspired no shortage of suspicion among professional and academic circles over the years, and evidence is emerging that some companies were aware of inconsistencies when vetting her, yet turned a blind eye. 

The economist was exposed by Business Day this week for allegedly not holding a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics (LSE) as she claims. 

For weeks, Leoka defended her mysterious PhD qualification to Daily Maverick and attempted to defer or block the story, promising copies of her degree that never arrived. LSE has confirmed that it has no record of Leoka being awarded a PhD by the institution. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Economist Thabi Leoka’s PhD appears to be a figment of her imagination

However, the economist continues to defend her doctorate – going so far as to provide a facsimile of a certificate with obvious inconsistencies to News24. LSE, in response to the image that has been circulating on X, told Daily Maverick it would “not comment on a screenshot of a document”, but reaffirmed that “We have checked our files and can find no record of ‘Thabi Leoka’, or ‘Bathabile Leoka’, being awarded a PhD from LSE.”

In a statement on Thursday, group secretary of the private healthcare group Netcare, Charles Vikisi came clean that the company had failed to adequately verify Leoka’s PhD qualification before appointing her to its board. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Et-yLYoHow
Leoka served as an independent non-executive director at Netcare between January 2022 and March 2023, and resigned voluntarily “following a potential conflict presented by her future appointment to the Remgro board, a significant shareholder in a direct competitor to Netcare,” said Vikisi. 

“As is standard practice within Netcare, a background check was conducted. A report by an external specialist integrity assessment firm commissioned by Netcare and received in November 2021 listed Ms Leoka’s highest qualification as an MA and MSc.”

However, Leoka’s alleged PhD qualification was not listed on the report, and Netcare did not interrogate her claim further. 

“In hindsight, we recognise that we should have proactively enquired why the PhD qualification, as stated on her curriculum vitae, was not reflected in the report. Regrettably, this diligence was not exercised. 

“Given the recent disclosures around the integrity of Ms Leoka’s academic qualifications, it is apparent that Netcare could have and should have done more to verify the accuracy of her CV, particularly as it pertained to her PhD,” said Vikisi. 

Despite not being able to verify Leoka’s alleged PhD, Netcare continued to refer to her as “Dr” until her resignation.  

A screenshot of Thabi Leoka's bio on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.


Suspicions ran deep


Daily Maverick understands from sources within the professional and academic spheres that suspicion surrounding Leoka’s alleged fraudulent PhD ran deep for many years. These suspicions were previously conveyed to at least one company Leoka continues to be involved with, but allegedly, nothing was done. 

Her admission to certain boards without adequate verification being conducted exposes the cracks and faults in the vetting processes of some of the country’s largest companies. As circumstantial evidence shows, when inconsistencies arose, rather than denounce Leoka publicly, some companies looked the other way. 

In response to previous questions from Daily Maverick, Corruption Watch (CW), The Presidency and the Stats SA Council confirmed that Leoka was never vetted for her qualifications as this was either not felt to be necessary or not to be a requirement. 

Leoka is a former CW board member and resigned in May 2022. 

“Thabi Leoka came highly recommended to Corruption Watch as a potential board member, having established herself as a highly competent economist, whose expertise was considered beneficial to the organisation. CW’s board of that time does not recall that she claimed she had a PhD in economics, and board members never had any reason to check her PhD qualification which in any event had no bearing on their decision to invite her to join the board,” CW told Daily Maverick. 

“Leoka did not provide proof to CW of her PhD qualification that she claims to hold from the LSE, but it must also be said that she was not requested to do so,” said CW, adding that in future it will apply more stringent processes to review individual credentials. 

Anglo American told Daily Maverick that “prospective non-executive directors are vetted before appointments are made. Remgro did not respond to Daily Maverick’s question on whether it vetted Leoka’s qualifications when she joined its board.

Bogus qualifications 


Leoka joins a growing list of high-profile people in South Africa who have falsified their qualifications. In 2014, ANC veteran Pallo Jordan was exposed for not having the doctorate he claimed from LSE. The Sunday Times investigation could find no evidence that Jordan had any formal academic qualifications. The following year, it was revealed that South Africa’s ambassador to Japan, Mohau Pheko, did not have the doctorate she claimed. 

More recently, former DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela – whose recent attempt at a political comeback flopped – was exposed for not holding a BCom in Human Resource Management from the University of South Africa (Unisa) that he had claimed for years on his CV. The DA admitted it never vetted his qualifications. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: DA Western Cape chief Bonginkosi Madikizela does not have a BCom degree, as publicly claimed

In November 2022, Daily Maverick’s Ferial Haffajee exposed Johannesburg Roads Agency CEO, Tshepo Mahanuke, for claiming to have a Harvard master’s degree that doesn’t exist and demanding that his staff call him “Dr” on the basis of an honorary doctorate that can be purchased for a small donation. 

In 2018, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) received 982 reports of fraudulent qualifications.  

“The persistence of fraudulent credentials frequently depends on a variety of circumstances, including institutional carelessness and the skill of individuals involved in deceit. The absence of a centralised and comprehensive database for academic qualifications is a key factor contributing to the prolonged undetected presence of false credentials,” professor in educational leadership and management at Unisa Victor Pitsoe told Daily Maverick. 

Pitsoe said the “unwillingness of organisations to regularly verify the qualifications of their current personnel leads to the continued presence of fraudulent credentials”.

“After a person has effectively penetrated an organisation using deceitful credentials, the absence of routine verifications leads to a deceptive feeling of safety. This complacency enables people to function with misleading credentials for long periods of time, since the initial screening procedure is often seen as a single event, rather than a continuous commitment to upholding the workforce’s integrity,” he said. 

Problematic vetting and verifying


Speaking to Daily Maverick, CEO of Pan-African Capital Holdings Dr Iraj Abedian said “there’s no question… that the rigour has gone in terms of corporate record, as well as the processes of verifying people’s degrees [and] verifying their past experiences”. 

Abedian said vetting is not just about verifying someone’s academic qualifications – very seldom do people check an individual’s experience and inquire as to why they left a past company.  

Founder and executive chairman of research and consulting firm Krutham, Stuart Theobald, said it seemed, in Leoka’s case, that she was able to get away with her claims for so long because of “a mixture of optimistic thinking… where qualifications haven’t been produced, and an assumption of probity just on the basis of an existing reputation”.

“Whenever a company is appointing someone, the psychology is to think the best of them… Institutionally you’re geared to think the best of them. The challenge and the lesson for companies is that this is why it’s important that your due diligence and vetting is subject to a robust and objective process that should probably be done independently and must be undertaken as a matter of routine without fear or favour,” he said.

Skills vs qualifications


Leoka in 2017 testified under oath before the Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training that she had a PhD from LSE. With lying under oath being a criminal offence, if she fails to prove that she has a PhD from the institution, she could face perjury charges and a fine or imprisonment. 

(Former Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini was convicted of perjury in March 2022, for lying under oath during a 2017 inquiry into the social grants crisis, and was sentenced to a fine of R200,000.) 

Under the National Qualifications Framework Amendment Act 12 of 2019, it is a criminal offence to knowingly provide “false or misleading information” about your qualifications, carrying a sentence of up to five years imprisonment. 

As dean and director of Henley Business School in Africa Jon Foster-Pedley put it: it’s become increasingly easy to pull off this con “but also increasingly risky”. 

However, the penalties for claiming false qualifications, he said, need to be amplified. 

Pressures of qualifications


Leoka’s MSc from LSE and her MA from the University of Witwatersrand are undisputed, and professionals who spoke to Daily Maverick agreed that she did not need a doctorate behind her to give her credibility. 

“Even if she had – not even a masters – even if she had an undergraduate degree – with her knowledge and expertise she could get as far as she has without being called Dr…  There’s a lot of people who have bonafide PhDs and they don’t have half the economic and general expertise. We must be mindful that she doesn’t need a doctorate behind her name to give her credibility,” said Abedian.

Foster-Pedley questioned whether we have put too much reverence around higher qualifications today, without putting reverence around competencies.

“If you have a woman with those capabilities and that experience, what is the pressure that’s impelling her…[to claim a Phd]? Are we putting people in positions because they have qualifications rather than capabilities?” he asked, adding that in the absence of skills production, the surrogate sometimes becomes qualifications.

“The problem we have is, the qualifications issue and false claims is something that has to be handled but is symptomatic of a really big issue that we cannot grow an economy without skills. And while we need doctorates, while we need higher qualifications, we also need multiple credentialization, and we should be thinking more broadly, generally within organisations, about what constitutes skills and capabilities, and just demanding a level of education” said Foster-Pedley. DM

 

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