Mon 20 May 2019:
South Africa’s National Qualifications Amendment Bill is on the brink of being signed into law. Once that happens, it could lead to jail time for those who fabricate CV qualifications.
The National Qualifications Amendment Bill is one of the new laws President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to sign off on soon. Signing new bills into law is one of the first tasks he’ll have in the coming weeks, but there’s a little way to go before it gets to that point.
He first has to be officially elected, inaugurated and then announce his new cabinet. Rumours are already swirling about who might make the cut. One of the biggest talking points is whether deputy DD Mabuza will keep his job.
Once the dust settles on all of that, though, it’s over to signing new bills into law.
The National Qualifications Amendment Bill explained in brief
Many people tell fibs on their CVs, you might even have done so yourself. They might be white lies, with the facts augmented with a few fancy adjectives. But the bill is after the big lies. Most simply, it aims to create grounds to punish those who fabricate qualifications. The punishment? Up to five years in jail.
But it’s not just those who lie on their CV who will be held accountable. Fly-by-night institutions misrepresenting qualifications or issuing unregistered qualifications could also be prosecuted.
The impact of the bill
While the full impact can’t be measured yet, the bill serves as some sort of reassurance as South Africa continues to recover from mismanagement. Many reference checking services say that so-called qualification fraud is actually one of the most common embellishments found on CVs.
Most common qualification frauds listed on CVs in South Africa
Not all jobs require degrees, of course, but those that do will benefit from the reassures that a deterrent is in place to help curb the prevalence of CV fraud. According to research by reference checking services, the most common embellishments are:
- Non-existent matric certificates
- Inflated education
- Unfinished degrees
- Fake degree certificates
So, if you’ve got a few fibs on our CV, best tidy it up.
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