The academic who supervised Shamim ”Chippy” Shaik’s allegedly bogus doctoral thesis has resigned from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Citizen reported on Tuesday.
Professor Viktor Verijenko tendered his resignation via e-mail on Monday morning.
An extensive investigation by the Sunday Times found that Shaik’s 2003 PhD in mechanical engineering from the then-University of Natal was plagiarised. More than two-thirds was regurgitated from journal papers of other authors without citation or acknowledgement.
Verijenko told the Sunday Times that Shaik’s work was worthy of a PhD and was of a high standard.
Verijenko is a supplier of services to state arms company Armscor, reported the Citizen. It was in possession of documents that showed Verijenko allegedly making several payments to Chippy Shaik -‒ who was head of the government’s defence procurement programme — around the time he was registered as a supplier to Armscor.
Shaik’s thesis also had three missing pages and he was apparently awarded his doctorate in spite of this.
”Clearly the thesis was never even looked at properly by any academic, and the missing pages show this is the case,” the Citizen quoted one UKZN academic as saying, who asked not to be named.
A university tribunal is to decide whether to strip Shaik of his doctorate.
His brother, Yunis, on Sunday said that Chippy was a ”significant contributor” to the journal article he is alleged to have plagiarised in his thesis.
”[He] is a co-author and significant contributor of the very journal article that he is said to have plagiarised,” wrote Yunis in a statement, in his brother’s defence.
”The article is mentioned in the bibliography. More importantly, his co-authors deny the allegation of plagiarism and contend that he was entitled to make use of the work as a co-author,” he added.
This exposé comes on the eve of a petition by his brother, Schabir — who has been convicted of fraud — to the Constitutional Court (Concourt) to get out of jail early.
Earlier, Yunis described the plagiarism claim as ”wild”, ”fanciful” and an attempt to malign the Shaik brothers on the eve of the Concourt case. – Sapa