Bogus brain surgeon fools authorities

Even though Nyunyi Wambuyi Katumba had been fired in Zimbabwe and Botswana for faking his qualifications as a neurosurgeon, he was cleared to work in South African hospitals.

Four years later, after he had worked as a brain surgeon in three hospitals in this country, the Health Professions Council has struck him from its roll.

It is not clear how the council registered Katumba - originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo - given that it was obliged to verify his qualifications.

Medical professionals who have qualified outside South Africa are required to write an entry exam, which is the equivalent of the final-year medicine qualification in South Africa.

It appears that Katumba did not write this exam.

Spokesman for the council Bertha Peter-Scheepers confirmed yesterday that Katumba was struck off the roll last month after failing to prove that he was qualified as a neurosurgeon.

Asked why he had been registered as a neurosurgeon, Peter-Scheepers said officials who could comment were still on leave and would answer when they returned.

Authorities in Zimbabwe say Katumba was kicked out of government employment at a hospital in Zimbabwe for shoddy work.

In Botswana, too, he is said to have been fired for poor performance.

Katumba then came to South Africa, where he worked at hospitals including the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Mediclinic Medforum in Pretoria, and Chris Hani-Baragwanath in Soweto.

He was fired from these hospitals after they received the letter of erasure from the Health Professions Council.

Ernest Kenoshi, CEO of Steve Biko Hospital, said Katumba had worked for two years under extended probation as a specialist neurosurgeon.

"We appointed him after he produced a certificate of registration from the Health Professions Council, but our assessment of his performance during his initial one-year probation period persuaded us to extend it by another year for closer assessment and observation," said Kenoshi.

"After two years of probation, we decided to fire him."

Johanna More, CEO of Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, said she had not been aware, when Katumba applied for a post, that he had been axed by Steve Biko Hospital.

"When we checked the system it did not say he was fired from his previous employment. It accepted him," she said.

More said the hospital was glad it had noticed early enough that Katumba was a fake and had fired him.

"He has never been involved in any major operation in this hospital," she said.