The Classroom Deception: A Teacher’s Career Built on a Forged Matric

For six years, she stood at the front of a classroom in Mpumalanga, shaping young minds as a business and accounting teacher. Her students, her colleagues, and the entire school community at Hlelimfundo Secondary School saw Ntombelanga Pretty Labane as an educator. But according to investigators, her entire career was built on a single, audacious lie.

The trial for Labane, who allegedly earned over R1.2 million as a teacher without ever having passed her matric, has been delayed. The Amersfoort Magistrate’s Court has postponed the case to March 2026, with the National Prosecuting Authority citing the unavailability of witnesses. For a community and an education system grappling with the breach of trust, the wait for answers has just grown longer.

A Forged Foundation

The story of this alleged deception begins with a stubborn academic hurdle. The Hawks, South Africa’s priority crime unit, state that Labane wrote her Grade 12 final examinations four consecutive timesin 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Each time, she was unsuccessful.

Undeterred, she allegedly crafted a new path. Investigators claim she forged a matric certificate by using the details and certificate number of another candidate, a woman named Nozipho Ritta Ngema. This fraudulent ticket was her key to higher education. She used it to gain admission to Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape, where she would eventually obtain a legitimate Bachelor of Education degree.

The bitter irony is profound: the very system she allegedly deceived later certified her as a qualified teacher.

A System That Failed to Check

In 2016, Labane applied for a teaching post at Hlelimfundo Secondary School. She presented her CV, the fraudulent matric, her B.Ed. degree, and her registration with the South African Council for Educators. The paper trail was convincing.

The school principal, the management team, and the School Governing Body all endorsed her application. The paperwork travelled from the school to the circuit manager in Ermelo, through the district office’s human resources departments, and onto the Persal system. At every step, the documents were checked and approved for employment. No one, authorities say, detected the forgery.

When questioned by the Public Service Commission, which first investigated the matter, school and district officials gave a familiar defence: they had no reason to suspect the documents were fake and lack the tools to verify their authenticity.

The Whistle-Blower and the Long Wait for Justice

The house of cards collapsed because of someone who knew the truth. A whistle-blower, aware that Labane had never passed matric, reported the matter to the Public Service Commission. The PSC’s findings led to a Hawks investigation in July 2022, culminating in Labane’s arrest on fraud charges.

The case highlights a deep-seated anxiety among many South Africans about the integrity of public services, particularly education. The fact that an alleged deception could go undetected for so long, earning an individual over a million rand in public money, raises uncomfortable questions about administrative oversight.

Now, with the trial pushed to 2026, the community of Amersfoort and the teaching profession at large must wait nearly two more years to see this case resolved. Labane remains out of custody, her long career in the classroom finally paused, as the legal system slowly turns its wheels toward a judgment day.

{Source: IOL}

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