A Limpopo woman has pulled the wool over her employer's eyes‚ teaching primary school children with a fake qualification for nearly 20 years. The South African Council of Educators (Sace) on Monday said it would open a case against the woman with police this week‚ after an investigation revealed her University of Venda degree was fake.Sace chief operations officer Matseliso Dipholo said the woman was no longer teaching‚ after she recently attempted to resign from her post.A question mark had been hovering over the woman's Bachelor of Arts qualification since 2006.“Council has decided that she must be deregistered. She's a fraudster teaching for almost 20 years‚” Dipholo said.Sace has detected over 20 cases of teachers working with fraudulent qualifications. It is warning teachers without proper papers to “run”.“The Council is now working together with universities‚ education departments and the South African Qualifications Authority to ensure that all qualifications of all teachers are authentic‚” Sace chief executive officer Rej Brijraj said.In another case‚ three teachers working at the same Mpumalanga school bought their fake University of Zululand (Unizulu) degrees.“The Mpumalanga [teachers] that we have just caught with fraudulent qualifications from Unizulu are currently studying at a different university.“They are claiming they were not aware that they can come and register [with Sace] while they are in the course of study. Hence‚ they took the desperate measures of going to find Unizulu qualifications‚” Dipholo said.The three teachers have now been blacklisted by Sace.Dipholo said the institutions most targeted by teaching fraudsters were Unizulu‚ the University of South Africa and North-West University.On Gauteng's East Rand about 25 teachers were found to be working with fake Unizulu degrees. The university has laid charges against teachers posing as its graduates.Though it is an employer's duty to verify qualifications‚ Sace is taking proactive steps to ensure fraudsters don't get into the system and draw salaries paid for taxpayers.“The smarter we get‚ they get smarter as well. They find smarter ways of making sure [their fake qualifications look authentic]. They even copy [the Sace CEO's] signature.“We need to be two steps forward. They are not stopping. When one shop [selling degrees] closes in Mpumalanga‚ they open up in Midrand‚” Dipholo said.Sace warned frauds to leave the profession immediately‚ as it prepares to vet all its registered teachers. - TMG Digital..