Two failed O-Level sittings, a forged ZIMSEC certificate showing eight passes, two years of training stipends: the Mpilo Central Hospital student nurses charged in Bulawayo

Entry to nursing training in Zimbabwe rests on one document: an Ordinary Level certificate from the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC). Government hospitals run their own schools of nursing under the Ministry of Health and Child Care, and court reports say trainees draw a monthly stipend from the start of training. In September 2025 two separate cases at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo showed how long a forged certificate could survive inside that system before anyone asked the examinations council to check it.

According to CITE (25 September 2025), Sandra Ndege, 25, from Murehwa, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Abednico Ndebele on fraud and forgery charges. The State alleged that she passed three of seven O-Level subjects in November 2018 and one of three on a 2019 retake, then applied to Mpilo's school of nursing in September 2023 with a certificate showing eight passes, was enrolled, and received monthly salaries for two years of training. Mpilo asked ZIMSEC to verify the certificate on 16 July 2025 and officials confirmed it was fake. She pleaded not guilty and remained in custody. ZimEye (1 October 2025) reported the same case, adding that the eight passes included English, mathematics and science, that she had been on the payroll for almost two years, and that routine hospital checks followed by ZIMSEC confirmation triggered the internal probe that led to her arrest.

Four days later CITE (29 September 2025) reported a second trainee, Thelma Gurupira, 23, from Mbare in Harare, before magistrate Takudzwa Gwazemba on the same charges. The court heard that the school's September 2017 intake required five O-Level subjects at symbol C or better, that she applied knowing she did not have them, and that she tendered a forged ZIMSEC certificate showing six passes from the November 2017 sitting. She was enrolled and trained from 12 September 2022 until 11 September 2025. She was remanded out of custody on free bail. CITE noted that in June 2025 a 27-year-old man had been jailed for seven years for posing as a qualified doctor at the same hospital.

The check that failed was the one at the front door. In both cases the school acted on the certificate as tendered and the verification request to ZIMSEC came years after enrolment. CITE (17 October 2025) reported that Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told senators that all student nurse applicants are now checked through ZIMSEC before admission, saying "a lot of people are conning the ministry through the system", after Manicaland Senator Maxwell Mdhluri warned that unqualified practitioners endanger lives and waste public money on salaries.

For students the lesson cuts both ways. Anyone tempted to buy a certificate should note that verification now happens before training starts, that the charge is fraud and forgery, and that both reports dwell on the stipend paid during training. For families choosing a nursing or medical programme, ask whether the institution verifies entry qualifications with the issuing examination board, and when. If an agent offers to "fix" your results to get you in, the admission will not survive the first audit, and you will have paid for a criminal record.