Phumzile Van Damme shuts down folks asking about her qualifications

20 April 2021 - 07:55 By unathi nkanjeni
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The DA's Phumzile Van Damme. File photo.
The DA's Phumzile Van Damme. File photo.
Image: Esa Alexander

DA MP Phumzile Van Damme has silenced people asking about her post-matric qualifications, telling them where to get off. 

Van Damme slammed social media users who asked if she matriculated and if she could share the certificate as proof. 

Not having any of it, she told trolls to do their own research.

Hamba uyobuza kwaSAQA [SA African Qualifications Authority] (Go ask the SAQA)," she said repeatedly. 

Questions about Van Damme's qualifications come after it emerged that the DA’s federal legal commission was investigating allegations against the party's Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela regarding his qualifications.

The Daily Maverick reported Madikizela lied about having a BCom degree in human resource management from Unisa. 

Madikizela told the publication he obtained his BCom in 1999 and later an IT diploma from the National Institute of Information Technology. 

He later made a U-turn and told Daily Maverick he did not complete his BCom qualification.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde announced that Madikizela would be suspended for a period of 14 days while an investigation determines the facts regarding his incomplete BCom degree and his allegedly misleading the public about the status of his academic qualifications.

Over the weekend, DA MP Natasha Mazzone was also at the centre of conversations after the Good party’s Brett Herron questioned Mazzone’s qualifications. It follows claims she edited her Wikipedia page to remove the word “advocate” from her qualifications in her biography. 

However, Mazzone clapped back at the claims, saying her lack of a post-matric qualification was a well-known fact and she always teased herself about only having a matric pass.

She also slammed Herron for bringing the issue up while she was mourning the death of her father. 

She said Herron was a “sick and damaged man” who waited for the mourning after her father’s death to take a dig at her.

“You are a lying, troublemaking political scoundrel. You are exactly where you belong,” she told him. 


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