Mpilo Central Hospital has been embroiled in a scandal involving a 25-year-old student nurse, Sandra Kudzaishe Ndege, who allegedly used a fake O-Level certificate to secure her admission and training place at the hospital. Court documents reveal that Sandra had twice failed her Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) Ordinary Level exams passing only a few subjects in 2018 and 2019. However, to gain entry into nursing school in September 2023, she forged a ZIMSEC certificate showing eight subjects passed with respectable grades, including subjects she had actually failed.
Sandra Ndege trained as a general nurse for nearly two years at Mpilo Central Hospital, during which she also received a monthly salary. The fraud was uncovered in July 2025 when Mpilo Hospital submitted her certificate to ZIMSEC for verification, which confirmed it was a counterfeit. She was arrested and appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Abednico Ndebele facing charges of fraud and forgery, to which she pleaded not guilty. The trial is ongoing, and she remains in police custody, with her case scheduled to continue in court on September 29, 2025. This case has raised serious concerns about the vetting processes at Mpilo Central Hospital. It also follows another recent scandal at the same hospital where a man was convicted and sentenced to prison for impersonating a medical professional and unlawfully prescribing medication. Sandra’s case highlights vulnerabilities in verifying academic qualifications for nursing training and raises questions about institutional safeguards in place to prevent such fraud.
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