KZN education dept made mistakes, court told

Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal education department made mistakes with pupils' matriculation certificates and exam numbers, a former school principal told the Durban Regional Court on Monday.

Retired school principal Charlton Sibhaca, giving evidence in the fraud trial of former KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Vincent Mdunge, said it happened a number of times in his career that pupils received the wrong marks.

He told the court some pupils received results with examination numbers that did not match the examination number they had received before the exam.

"I don't think they [the department] can't say that there were no mistakes. There were," he replied, when asked about the State's assertion that the department had not made a mistake.

Mdunge faces three charges of fraud and one of uttering a forged document.

Two of the fraud charges relate to his presentation of an allegedly fake matric certificate when he joined the police in 1987.

The third fraud charge relates to his presentation of the alleged fraudulent certificate to the University of SA to get admission to a national diploma in police administration course.

The State alleges the number on his matric certificate is his Standard 8 examination number.

Mdunge resigned last year, after the allegation surfaced in September, and he was arrested in October.

In March, a provincial education department official told the court the department had no record of a matric certificate for Mdunge, and the one Mdunge claimed was his had been tampered with unlawfully.

His former teacher told the court in May that he personally handed Mdunge a matric certificate. Vusimuzi Donald Duke Khumalo told the court he was Mdunge's English teacher in 1984 and 1985, when Mdunge matriculated from Ukusa High School in Hammarsdale.

Both Mdunge's lawyer Saleem Khan and prosecutor Barend Groen were expected to deliver closing arguments later on Monday.