She attended a graduation ceremony, posed for the photographs and then went on to practise as a radiographer. The only problem was Asisipho Mbekela, 25, allegedly did not have her diploma.
In fact, it emerged in court that Mbekela had failed her final academic year at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
Not only did she flunk three of her four subjects, obtaining dismal assessment marks in the process, she also failed to present a medical report as motivation for an appeals process for a reassessment.
The young woman allegedly claimed she had been diagnosed with depression and that a change in lecturers had negatively affected her performance.
Though Mbekela was not eligible to obtain a qualification from CPUT because her appeal was rejected, she later went on to land a job as a radiographer with the Eastern Cape department of health and worked for six months.
Details of her participation in the graduation ceremony emerged in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday where one of her former lecturers, Carolynn Lackay, took to the stand.
Lackay told the court that during an April 2016 graduation ceremony, she heard the dean of the faculty announce Mbekela’s name for her to go on stage and be capped as one of the graduates.
Lackay said she had been shocked.
“I knew she did not pass the year.
“I double-checked the autumn 2016 graduation booklet but the booklet did not contain her name.
I double-checked the autumn 2016 graduation booklet but the booklet did not contain her name.
“I was shocked and didn’t know what was happening.
“When she walked past the stage I tried to get the attention of the HoD [head of department] but there was live-streaming and I could not intervene,” she said.
Lackay said she immediately sent Mbekela a WhatsApp message informing her not to leave the ceremony without first meeting her at the auditorium.
The message went unanswered and the desperate lecturer then sent a text message to a classmate who had been seated in the same row as Mbekela.
When the graduation ceremony ended, Lackay proceeded to look for Mbekela but she had vanished.
“A former classmate informed me that she had gone to the bathroom halfway through the ceremony and never returned,” Lackay said.
She then managed to phone Mbekela’s sister and insisted she speak with her.
However, Lackay said that she “refrained from answering any questions”.
Mbekela, of Walmer Heights, faces three counts of fraud and two of forgery.
She has pleaded not guilty.
According to the charge sheet, in 2015, Mbekela was registered at CPUT as a final-year student for a national diploma in Radiography: Nuclear Medicine.
She wrote her final exams in November 2015, and though managing to scrape through one subject with a 50% average, she failed radiographic practice with 35%, radiopharmacy with 32% and nuclear medicine with a dismal 25%.
According to the charge sheet, a student who does not obtain a pass rate of at least 50% for all subjects would be excluded from the programme.
In addition, Mbekela did not even receive the 40% required to apply for reassessment or to write a supplementary examination, but subsequently lodged an appeal.
The appeal, however, was rejected pending a letter from a medical doctor to ascertain if she was fit enough to continue with the course.
“An appeal was lodged against her exclusion but it was rejected provided she present the medical documents requested by the faculty.
“Failure on behalf of her to submit the documents resulted in her exclusion from the programme,” Lackay said.
The Eastern Cape department of health was reportedly unaware of this and Mbekela was offered employment on a contract basis as a radiographer doing community service.
She assumed duties at Livingstone Hospital on March 1 2016 and “falsely indicated on her Z83 application that she had obtained a qualification in Radiography: Nuclear Medicine at the CPUT in the year 2015”, the charge sheet reads.
When the alleged deception was discovered on September 20 2016, Mbekela was immediately dismissed.
The trial continues on Friday.
HeraldLIVE
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