South Africans are being conferred with an “honorary doctorate in humanitarianism” from an obscure organisation in the US called the Global International Alliance (GIA). Among them are Shamila Ramjawan, a lecturer in the department of business management at Unisa, Esha Mansingh, the executive vice-president of corporate affairs at Imperial Logistics, and MP Brandon Pillay.
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) confirmed GIA was a “membership platform” and not a recognised or accredited awarding institution. Its honorary doctorate would not be recognised by SAQA.
Joe Samuels, an expert on qualifications and former SAQA CEO, said he was aware of the GIA and that it was not recognised or accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation in the US (CHEA). He said GIA’s honorary doctorate, which serves merely for marketing purposes, “meets the standard of a vanity award”.
“The use of these titles can only diminish the credibility and proud record of universities in SA. My advice would be to Unisa and other South African universities to have a serious look at what is happening around honorary doctorate awards and develop clear policy and guidelines on this matter.”
After the Sunday Times questioned Ramjawan on her use of the title, she asked Unisa on Wednesday to replace the title “Dr” with “Ms” on its website. She also deleted her profile from LinkedIn.
Her lawyer, Johan du Toit, said Ramjawan had asked Unisa to “remove the Dr to avoid further completely unnecessary confusion when a person does not properly understand the qualification”. Du Toit insisted the GIA is a legitimate and accredited organisation with the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training, but Samuels said CHEA did not recognise this body as an accreditation agency.
“This is not an academic doctoral degree but an honorary doctorate issued for our client’s humanitarian work across the globe,” Du Toit said. He said that whenever Ramjawan used the title of Dr, she used the words “honoris causa” [for the sake of the honour] next to it. But the Sunday Times found that responses from her automated e-mail service made no such mention.
Du Toit said Ramjawan did not regard the honorary doctorate as a “vanity” award as she had achieved all her local and global accolades through her entrepreneurship and humanitarian work. He confirmed that Ramjawan was appointed GIA chair after she received the honorary doctorate “due to the influx in applications from SA”.
“The applications are vetted by our client, the candidates register on the GIA website, motivate via a mini thesis and [the] GIA committee further verifies.”
Du Toit said Ramjawan had not received any financial gain. “The GIA charges a fee for processing, handling and courier fees where a certificate and medal is sent directly to the candidate’s physical address.”
Chief executive director of the GIA is Lenora Wimberly-Peterson, who is also CEO of The Vision in You Outreach Ministry, according to the latest information on the Georgia Corporations Division’s website. The church’s office address is a house in the suburb of Duluth in Georgia.
Regina Williams Rehkamp, a GIA staff member who referred media queries to Wimberly-Peterson, said: “All those questions should be sent to ambassador Peterson because it’s her baby. She has all the documentation, which I don’t have.” She refused to provide Wimberly-Peterson’s e-mail address or her own. There was no response to questions e-mailed to GIA.
Mansingh said in an e-mailed response she was awarded the honorary doctorate “based on my extensive humanitarianism, social impact and CSI [corporate social investment] work over the years”.
Pillay, a community activist sworn in as an MP in January, said he was honoured to receive global recognition for his community work and the award was based “primarily on the work you do and the number of hours you have served as a volunteer”.
“For me it was more about the global humanitarian award than the doctorate. I wouldn’t use the title as it is an honorary doctorate. In SA only an academic [with a PhD] or a medical doctor can use the title.”
Pillay, who was nominated by Ramjawan for the award, said: “Whether [GIA] is recognised or not, there are many organisations that award people awards for being volunteers and I don’t see a problem with it.”
Professor Jonathan Jansen, distinguished professor in the faculty of education at Stellenbosch University, said honorary doctorates must be bestowed by a recognised institution.
“No academic in an American university of note would take such an organisation seriously ... it’s, quite honestly, demeaning.”
Professor Ahmed Bawa, CEO of Universities SA, said “it would be unusual and perhaps unethical” for an awardee of an honorary doctorate, who did not hold a doctorate, to use the title of doctor.
“If the honorific title is awarded by a non-degree conferring institution one has to be suspicious that this is either dubious or unethical. It would certainly be unethical for the individual to use the title.”
Ntokozo Bhengu, spokesperson for the Council on Higher Education, said they were aware of the trend by some academics who received non-academic degrees to masquerade as doctors and professors.
The Bloem ‘professor’ who isn’t
Last week, a college principal who insists on calling herself a professor, despite not being appointed one by a recognised university, lost a legal bid to “permanently ban” the Sunday Times from publishing an article about her controversial use of the title.
Bloemfontein high court judge Celeste Reinders dismissed with costs the application by Marianna Phutsisi, head of Motheo TVET College in Mangaung.
The Sunday Times established that Phutsisi used the title of professor in all her official correspondence after an “honorary professor“ title was “conferred” on her by the Academic Union Oxford (AUO) in the UK in December 2018.
The AUO is owned by Europe Business Assembly, which is notorious for “selling fake degrees”, according to overseas media reports. It does not have any links with Oxford University.
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