South African columnist calls for simpler diploma checks — Daily Maverick
In South Africa, a Daily Maverick columnist raised the issue of verifying diplomas and professional experience following a report about DA party candidate Abdulkader Elias. The author referred to a publication by Rebecca Davis which, he said, concerned Elias’s false claims about his biography and qualifications.
DA candidate selection
According to the columnist, Elias made it onto the DA candidate list in Cape Town and was likely involved in the party’s election work. At the same time, the full story of his advance to the candidate list and his role in the campaign still needs to be established, the author noted.
The author also suggested that the then-president of the University of Cape Town’s student representative council, who was a student at the time, was able to quickly recognize the unreliability of Elias’s claims. He questioned why other people connected to university and political structures had not noticed this.
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Graduate data
The columnist believes that universities should create databases that would allow people to verify who studied at an institution and what qualifications they obtained. According to him, colleagues told him that some institutions refuse to provide such data, citing privacy considerations.
In the author’s view, this complicates the verification of education claims. He also cited his own experience working at a London radio station: according to him, a colleague exaggerated or invented information about his experience and qualifications, while problems in his work had to be corrected by others.
