Traffic students expelled, arrested

THREE traffic students were expelled from the Manenu Traffic College on Monday, with one of the students also being arrested for fraud by the department of transport, safety, security and liaison’s internal affairs division after he allegedly presented a falsified senior certificate (gr. 12 certificate).

Transport, safety, security and liaison spokesperson, Jimmy Machaka, said the department appointed 250 learner traffic officials who were currently completing their training at Manenu Traffic College.

Machaka said all the appointed learner traffic officials had to comply with requirements as set out in the advertisement. This included being medically fit, having a driver’s licence and gr. 12 certificate, and no criminal record.

“All the shortlisted applicants were called for interviews and later appointed as per the recommendation of the panels.

“The successful applicants were further advised that their appointments were subject to screening and verification of their personal and academic qualifications,” he explained.

“It should be noted that the process of verification of the student academic information took place while the learners were training, and it was later discovered that the three students in question were not supposed to be part of the programme.

“Two of the students submitted a general education and training certificate; which is not equivalent to matric and did not reach the specific scores which would render it similar to gr. 12.

“Therefore they did not qualify to be part of the programme and should also not have been shortlisted in the first place,” he said.

“The third student presented a fraudulent matric certificate, in that he used a certificate which belonged to another person and tampered with the names and identity number on the certificate.

“In light of this, the department took the decision to expel the three students with immediate effect, and the matter of fraud has been referred to the police in Mutale for further investigation,” Machaka said.

Mutale police spokesperson WO Tshilidzi Nyambeni confirmed the arrest and said the suspect would appear before court soon.