Mayor in hot water for conferring 'PhD' on Limpopo entertainer

Joke or not, the mayor of Greater Giyani municipality has no authority to confer an honorary degree on a Limpopo entertainer.

“According to the Higher Education Act, there is no independent school or private education institution that can give out honorary doctorates. What happened, whether it was a joke or not, is against the act,” says Joe Samuels, an expert on qualifications and former CEO of the SA Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Mayor Basani Shibambu is taking flak from the public too after visuals were shared of her conferring “an honorary doctorate” on a Limpopo man with dwarfism at a Limpopo school function.  

Entertainer July Mabunda, also known as Buti Majulie, became an overnight sensation at the weekend after videos of him saying “Yena Aaya kwini” (loosely translated as “where was he/she going?”) went viral on social media.

An image shared of the certificate on Twitter by a Patriotic Alliance official, Ntsako Shivambu, showed he was awarded an honorary “degree of doctor of divinity” by the Nkwangulatilo Education Centre, a school in Giyani, for his “healing powers” of laughter and comedy. 

According to the Higher Education Act, no independent school as defined in the South African Schools Act, or other private education institution may call itself a university or technikon or confer a professorship or an honorary degree or use the title rector, vice-chancellor or chancellor unless it is registered as a private higher education institution.

The office of Limpopo co-operative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs MEC, Basikopo Makamu, said he had reached out to the mayor for answers.

“The MEC [Makamu] has reached out to the mayor to understand her presence at the event as a mayor, considering it was not a government event. It is important to state that there is no formal investigation of any sort into this matter. The department and the MEC were not in any way involved or knowing of this event,” MEC spokesperson Hitekani Magwedze said.

Shibambu and her spokesperson failed to respond by the time of publication. TimesLIVE will provide an update when their comment is obtained.

In an earlier Facebook post, the municipality said Shibambu had attended the ceremony to confer an honorary degree on the entertainer after the school decided to honour him for his “positive contribution and influence in the community through entertainment”.

TimesLIVE