The man who was chief engineer at South Africa’s state passenger rail company has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for falsifying his qualifications.
Once lauded for his successful career, Daniel Mthimkhulu was head of engineering at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for five years, earning an annual salary of about R2.8 million ($156,000; £119,000).
On his resume, the 49-year-old listed several qualifications as a mechanical engineer, including a degree from South Africa’s respected University of the Witwatersrand and a doctorate from a German university.
However, the Johannesburg court ruled that he had only completed his secondary education.
“The sentence sends a strong message that perpetrators of white-collar crime will not go unpunished,” said Phindi Mjonondwane, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Mthimkhulu was arrested in July 2015, shortly after his web of lies began to unravel.
He had joined Prasa 15 years earlier and had worked his way up to chief engineer using false qualifications.
The court also heard that he forged a job offer letter with a German company, encouraging Prasa to increase his salary so the agency would not lose him.
He was also the driving force behind a R600 million deal to buy dozens of new trains from Spain, but these could not be used in South Africa because they were too high.
“The court took into account the seriousness and scale of the fraud, the significant financial loss to Prasa and Mthimkhulu’s betrayal of his employer’s trust,” Ms Mjonondwane said.
In a 2019 interview with the local broadcaster eNCAMthimkhulu admitted that he did not have a doctorate.
“I failed to correct the perception that I have it. I simply became familiar with the title. I did not foresee any harm as a result of this,” he said.
Lieutenant General Seswantsho Godfrey Lebeya, the head of the elite South African Hawks police unit that helped charge the suspects, welcomed the sentence.
“This should be a lesson to potential fraudsters: crime does not pay,” he said.
According to the Hawks, this was a case related to “state capture,” a term used in South Africa to describe the widespread corruption that took place under Jacob Zuma, when he was president from 2009 to 2018.
Mthimkhulu reportedly plans to appeal.
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