A 27-year-old, who worked as a radiographer in Gqeberha allegedly without the necessary qualifications, took the stand to tell her "side of the story" at the city's Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Friday.
The State alleges that Asisipho Mbekela, lied about obtaining her qualification from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2016.
In February last year, state witnesses testified that Mbekela had dismally failed her modules and therefore she couldn't have qualified for any re-assessment.
CPUT's Radiography former lecturer with 35 years of experience, Geraldine Philotheou, was the first to testify against Mbekela and said because she had failed 50% of her modules she did not qualify for a re-assessment.
But, she told the court a different version, testifying that the University had allowed her to rewrite the assessments after she submitted a medical certificate from a psychiatrist.
She said that she had passed the three re-assessments and an invite to the graduation ceremony followed suit via mail.
Asked by her defence attorney, Peter Daubermann whether she had seen the invite, Mbekela said she hadn't as she was still in Cape Town.
Mbekela said her mother in Mthatha received the invitation but added that her mom was not willing to testify in the trial.
She told the court that she showed these results to CPUT official, Magda Bauman, on graduation day who printed her certificate.
Bauman earlier testified that she had hastily printed the certificate as she thought a mistake could have been made.
The State asked the court to remand the case until the 26th of May due to the fact that a new prosecutor has come on board who would need to familiarise himself with the case in order to cross-examine the accused.
According to the State, the accused not once but twice intentionally forged a document in writing showing that she did pass all her subjects.
The State is arguing that Mbekela knew she was not qualified and therefore also knew that she was not entitled to accept any offer of employment from the Department of Health.
The National Diploma in Radiography: Nuclear Medicine, is a minimum requirement for registration in radiography and Mbekela would not have had an opportunity to start her course all over again the next year as CPUT was in the process of phasing it out.
Mbekela is currently out on bail.
