Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo has found itself in hot water once again after a trainee nurse was caught red-handed using a counterfeit O-Level certificate to sneak into its nursing program.

The accused, 25-year-old Sandra Kudzaishe Ndege from Murehwa, faced Bulawayo magistrate Abednico Ndebele on Thursday, charged with fraud and forgery. Despite the evidence, she pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody until September 29.

Court papers reveal that Ndege, who flunked her O-Level exams twice, concocted a fake Zimsec certificate boasting eight passes in key subjects like English, Mathematics, and Science. Armed with this impressive but fraudulent document, she gained admission to Mpilo’s School of Nursing in September 2023. For nearly two years, she trained as a Registered General Nurse and even collected a salary,talk about getting paid for pretending!

The charade came crashing down in July 2025 when hospital officials decided to verify her credentials. Zimsec quickly exposed the forgery, confirming that Ndege had only scraped through with three passes in 2018 and a single pass in a 2019 re-sit. The bogus certificate, however, painted her as a stellar student with top marks in Agriculture (A), Shona (A), and Mathematics (C),a fictional academic superstar.

This scandal adds to Mpilo’s recent woes, following a bizarre case six months ago where Taurayi Prosper Vanhuvaone, 29, impersonated a medical doctor under the alias “Dr Prosper Mpofu.” For two years, Vanhuvaone ran a rogue clinic within the hospital, treating patients and duping job seekers with fake nursing job offers. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in March, with part of the sentence suspended, because apparently, impersonating a doctor is only partly frowned upon?

Mpilo’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Narcisius Dzvanga, commented on the latest fiasco, assuring the public that the hospital has beefed up its verification processes to prevent future imposters from slipping through the cracks.

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