False claim about South Africa high school certificates reappears online
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on July 31, 2019 at 11:15
- 1 min read
- By AFP South Africa, Tendai DUBE
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The screenshot can be seen on a Facebook post, which received hundreds of shares and is archived here, captioned: “Sums up everything g that is wrong with this God forsaken place..”
Another post this month shared the claim here. Claims from 2017 can be found here and here.
The claims were attributed to Angie Motshekga, minister of basic (primary and lower secondary) education. Her department released a statement on July 7, 2017 dismissing and condemning the reports.
“Another fake news doing its rounds is that the Minister of Basic Education wants to help school “drop outs” get employment by giving them Matric certificates as long as they are able to read and write,” said the statement.
“This is not true, the Minister has said no such thing and there are no plans to give anyone who does not pass the National Senior Certificate examinations a Matric Certificate.”
The other claim the department denied at the time suggested that Motshekga believed that too much studying causes brain cancer.
The department noted that despite the “ridiculous” nature of the statements, members of the public had expressed concern over the reports.
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