This comes after the Department failed to issue students at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges around the country with their certificates upon completing their courses, with some waiting years for the certificates.

The Pretoria-based firm, Maluleke, Seriti, Makume and Matlala Incorporated (MSMMINC), has taken the case up. Attorney at MSMMINC, Mmuso Matlala, says the firm will be representing these students pro bono. Matlala says around 50 students have come forward so far. The 29-year-old Nomuneliso Matomane from Virgina in the Free State is one of the students that have come forward. Matomane says she heard about the class action lawsuit from her friend, who saw it on the social media network, Facebook. Matomane started studying Human Resource Management at Motheo TVET college located in Bloemfontein in 2011. Around 2015, she completed her practicals, qualifying for her National Diploma in the field. To date, she has not received her certificate. Matomane wanted to go to the Central University of Technology (CUT) to study further, but she can’t. She says it is difficult for her to apply for jobs because she doesn’t have the certificate.

Matlala says most, if not all the students that have come forward have been devastated by the backlog of certificates because they are the only hope of their families financially. This is the case for Matomane, who lives with her unemployed parents in Virginia. She says “I am hoping that at least by February, I should have my Diploma certificate, I’ll be so happy. I will be able to go to Central University of Technology to do my Bachelor of Technology (BTech)”.

Keneilwe Molawa from Thaba Nchu in the Free State, on the other hand, has been waiting six years for her Civil Engineering and Building Construction certificate from Motheo College. It was her steely determination and perseverance that led to the Pretoria-based law firm to take up the case. Molawa wrote multiple letters to the Department of Higher Education and Training over the years in a bid to receive her certificate. She tells OFM News that she even wrote to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for assistance. The SAHRC referred her case to the Public Protector to investigate. Despite all her efforts, she is still not in possession of her certificate.

DHET last month informed parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training that the department had cleared the backlog of certificates that date as far back as 2007. According to the statement released by the portfolio committee, as of September 2017, 236 982 certificates had been processed and released. 659 certificates would be issued after outstanding fees owed by “beneficiaries were paid to Umalusi Quality Council for General and Further Education and Training”.

Source: The Citizen