The department of Higher Education and Training has named the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Mpumalanga as the provinces with the highest number of bogus colleges. Deputy Minister, Buti Manamela was briefing the oversight committee on Higher Education and Training in Parliament on the progress made in reducing the proliferation of bogus colleges. The department revealed that these illegal private colleges are operated by foreign nationals from countries such as the United States of America. So far more than 40 illegal operators of private colleges across the country have been arrested since 2011.
Manamela told the committee that they have laid charges with the FBI to crackdown bogus colleges. “We have been working with the South African police services and the Department of Basic Education. we have been cracking down on the operators of bogus colleges. Over 40 of the bogus operators have been arrested which includes US-based operators using the logo of the higher education as a way of enticing the students. Because of the involvement of the US-based operators, we have also laid charges with the FBI and we published the list of colleges local and international on our website as the means to warn the public of the scrupulous service providers,”concluded Manamela.
