By Kaya 959 News
Yet another DA leader has been accused of faking his qualifications. JP Smith who holds the title of DA’s City of Cape Town’s caucus Deputy Leader, Mayco member for Safety and Security and Western Cape Provincial Deputy Chairperson, allegedly lied about his tertiary qualifications.
The allegations stem from an event that took place in 2019 where Smith claimed that he had an honours degree in English from Stellenbosch University.
Smith was on the line-up as a guest speaker.
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The Weekend Argus reported that Smith did not complete his honours. It was also revealed that during a conference the year before, Smith made the same claims.
However, Smith slammed the reports published by the Weekend Argus.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Smith said his CV reflects his qualifications and his highest qualification is a BA Degree obtained at Stellenbosch University in 1993.
“MY CV has been verified by the DA candidate process as accurate. This CV, submitted in early 2020 accurately reflects my tertiary qualifications with my BA degree listed s my highest completed degree,” he said.
Clerical error to blame
Smith said his CV has and is accurately reflected on the City of Cape Town website.
“The CV further explicitly reflects an Honours in English as incomplete. It has been my intention to return to completing this honours degree but workload over the last years has made that impossible,” Smith said.
He said the newspaper did not prescribe to the Press Code and was known for incessant misinformation.
“We have investigated the origin of the discrepancy on the 2018 conference bio as my office would have edited and distributed bios from time to time in accordance with periodic updates on roles and positions held,” he said.
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Smith added that at some point, a clerical error was made in editing a bio by omitting the term ‘incomplete’ in relation to an incomplete Honours in English postgraduate qualification.
He said the error must have persisted for a while until it was edited and corrected.
Smith said he was not involved in the updated and editing of bios and was unaware of the error until he was alerted to it.
“It is clear that there was no intention to deceive anyone on the issue nor to benefit in any way from this,” he said.
Zille defends Smith
DA Federal Council chairperson, Helen Zille, said the allegations were not facts.
She confirmed that Smith had referred himself to the party’s Federal Legal Commission for the allegations to be investigated.
Zille said the DA had strong internal institutions to deal with such allegations.
“Then there are appropriate sanctions. These processes are running their course,” she said.
Last month another Saldanha mayor, Marius Koen, had to defend his title after he was accused of lying about his qualifications.
Before that, DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone was in the hot seat after she was accused of lying about her qualifications and DA Western Cape leader and MEC, Bonginkosi Madikizela, last month resigned after it was revealed that he lied about having a BCom degree.
