After five years of clamping down on unregistered colleges, the Department of Higher Education and Training is battling to shut down these bogus institutions.
Since 2012 the department has laid 21 criminal charges with the police against the owners of the bogus colleges across the country.
Out of the 21 cases, one owner fled the country stalling the case, three have no case numbers and the rest are still under investigation. The colleges are accused of making false claims about the qualifications they offer and operating without registration.
The Times could not reach any of the investigating officers.
The department admitted it was aware that several bogus colleges had resurfaced under different names in different locations . In 2013 the International Institute for Tax Finance, a bogus college based in Fourways, Johannesburg, was shut down and later reopened as The Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
Education spokesman Madikwe Mabotha said an awareness campaign was ongoing to alert the public of bogus colleges.
"This is the most effective way to ensure that the owners are arrested, charged and convicted and to alsoensure that these colleges do not reproduce themselves."
Caroline Long of the faculty of education at the University of Johannesburg said the department needed a multifaceted approach to monitor college standards.
"There is a bigger problem here. We need to have a larger vision for our country and its people."
Long said students were desperate to get into tertiary institutions which should be working on a larger vision to address the demand.
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