Police find Matric statements, seize equipment
POLICE yesterday smashed up an Internet café used to manufacture school reports at Mabopane station, north of Pretoria, and arrested three suspects.
Sowetan is also in possession of a fake school report bought for R150 on Wednesday and indicating that our photographer passed Grade 10 with flying colours.
Yesterday police and Gauteng department of education officials pounced on the dealership and found forged school reports and transfers, as well as Grade 12 statements of results. Four laptop computers and three printers were confiscated during the raid.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Lolo Mangena said they were investigating a case of fraud and added that their IT specialists would examine the equipment for more evidence.
"We have taken in three people aged between 20 and 30 for questioning because the main suspect was not present when we arrived."
The owner of the shop, Piet Dlamini, said he was not aware that criminal activities were taking place in his shop since he had hired out the place to a person he identified only as Andrew.
"He (Andrew) has been running the Internet café for the past four months and paid R100 monthly rent," he said.
Failed pupils allegedly buy the fake reports and then ask their schools for a transfer so that they can be promoted to the next grade once at a new school.
The scam was blown wide open at Soshanguve High School when a parent, who had come to ask for a transfer for her son, discovered that her son had given her a fake report.
The parent, who did not want her name and that of her son published, said she was puzzled when her 17-year-old son refused to go back to school and insisted that he wanted a transfer.
"I could not understand why he wanted a transfer though he had performed so well. I decided to go to school and that is when I discovered that he had actually failed. I was shocked that he bought a report," she said.
The school's principal, Victoria Ledwaba, said she became suspicious about the authenticity of the report because he knew the Grade 10 pupil bunked school and could not have achieved the results indicated in the report. He had failed the grade three times.
"I decided to check his results on our system and my suspicion was confirmed. He (pupil) confided that he had bought the report," she said.
The pupil told Sowetan that he bought the report out of frustration because his father had "threatened to take me to a boarding school in Limpopo if I failed and I do not want to stay in a rural area".
Gauteng education department spokesperson Charles Phahlane thanked Sowetan for bringing the scam to their attention and advised schools to be cautious when considering pupils transferred from other schools in the area.
Fake school report scam is exposed
Police find Matric statements, seize equipment
POLICE yesterday smashed up an Internet café used to manufacture school reports at Mabopane station, north of Pretoria, and arrested three suspects.
Sowetan is also in possession of a fake school report bought for R150 on Wednesday and indicating that our photographer passed Grade 10 with flying colours.
Yesterday police and Gauteng department of education officials pounced on the dealership and found forged school reports and transfers, as well as Grade 12 statements of results. Four laptop computers and three printers were confiscated during the raid.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Lolo Mangena said they were investigating a case of fraud and added that their IT specialists would examine the equipment for more evidence.
"We have taken in three people aged between 20 and 30 for questioning because the main suspect was not present when we arrived."
The owner of the shop, Piet Dlamini, said he was not aware that criminal activities were taking place in his shop since he had hired out the place to a person he identified only as Andrew.
"He (Andrew) has been running the Internet café for the past four months and paid R100 monthly rent," he said.
Failed pupils allegedly buy the fake reports and then ask their schools for a transfer so that they can be promoted to the next grade once at a new school.
The scam was blown wide open at Soshanguve High School when a parent, who had come to ask for a transfer for her son, discovered that her son had given her a fake report.
The parent, who did not want her name and that of her son published, said she was puzzled when her 17-year-old son refused to go back to school and insisted that he wanted a transfer.
"I could not understand why he wanted a transfer though he had performed so well. I decided to go to school and that is when I discovered that he had actually failed. I was shocked that he bought a report," she said.
The school's principal, Victoria Ledwaba, said she became suspicious about the authenticity of the report because he knew the Grade 10 pupil bunked school and could not have achieved the results indicated in the report. He had failed the grade three times.
"I decided to check his results on our system and my suspicion was confirmed. He (pupil) confided that he had bought the report," she said.
The pupil told Sowetan that he bought the report out of frustration because his father had "threatened to take me to a boarding school in Limpopo if I failed and I do not want to stay in a rural area".
Gauteng education department spokesperson Charles Phahlane thanked Sowetan for bringing the scam to their attention and advised schools to be cautious when considering pupils transferred from other schools in the area.
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