**The Fake Engineering Qualification Scandal: Fatshimetrie Reveals**
In the news and public outrage, the fraud case involving a senior official at South Africa’s state-owned railway agency, PRASA, has shaken the foundations of professional integrity. Daniel Mtimkulu, the agency’s former director of engineering, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for falsifying his engineering qualifications and engaging in various frauds.
Mtimkulu’s tumultuous story reveals a complex web of lies and fraud that has had devastating repercussions on the South African railway sector. His premature departure from PRASA in 2015 sparked suspicions that ultimately led to his arrest and conviction in 2022 on three counts of fraud and forgery.
One of Mtimkulu’s most pernicious frauds was to fake academic qualifications in engineering, claiming to hold a master’s degree from a South African university and a doctorate in engineering management from a German university, credentials that turned out to be baseless fabrications. In addition, he used subterfuge by presenting a fictitious job offer from a competing German company to obtain a substantial salary increase, from $90,000 to $155,000 per year.
Mtimkulu’s scheme was a tour de force, allowing him not only to obtain an undue salary, but also to secure a lucrative contract worth over $100 million for the purchase of locomotives; a deal that turned out to be a fiasco due to a miscalculation of the height of the machines in relation to the South African railway network.
This case is unfortunately not an isolated one, but it exposes the governance and integrity failings that plagued some of South Africa’s largest public companies between 2009 and 2018. An investigation revealed that billions of dollars were diverted in bribes and kickbacks to the detriment of these companies.
The courts eventually sentenced Mtimkulu to 15 years in prison for fraud, a scathing reminder that cheating and corruption will not go unpunished. In addition, he was ordered to repay $323,000 to PRASA, funds derived from his misdeeds.
This case, which has shaken the very foundations of professional integrity, should serve as a scathing warning to all those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of public trust. It is now up to the authorities to strengthen control and transparency mechanisms to prevent such scandalous misdeeds from happening again in the future.