"We have already written a couple of letters to students at the University of Botswana and Institute of Health Sciences. I believe that there are many others elsewhere and we are busy checking all the certificates obtained in Zimbabwe. I think we will end up with many students' sponsorships being terminated due to this problem," said the director of Student Placement and Welfare Mosoma Kgotla. He was speaking after the police arrested six students from the Francistown Institute of Health Sciences for uttering false academic certificates. Kgotla stated that the process of vetting certificates is slow because it has to be done thoroughly if it is to achieve the goal of weeding out the fraudsters.
He said the problem of forged certificates is not new. It has been made public by students who took the department to court after their sponsorship to study at a Malaysian university were terminated. "When the police went there to investigate, they were made familiar with the originals' security features which we were not aware of. Following this we put aside all the certificates obtained in Zimbabwe for screening," Kgotla said. He added that they are more familiar with the security features of the Cambridge certificates obtained in Botswana.
