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Fake sick note scam exposed

20 January 2016

Cape Town - Supermarket bosses believe they have exposed a fake doctor's note scam after several of their staff took sick leave and produced dodgy letters.

Shoprite in Khayelitsha has now called on the police to investigate the "doctor" who writes out medical certificates "at a price". In the past six months, 10 of their staff members have been booked off numerous times by the same doctor, all with the same types of illnesses.

And when they tried to call the doctor, using the details given on the sick note, there is no answer. The suspect certificates, complete with practice number, state that the doctor, Sandile Malizo, is a "complementary health practitioner" with a consulting office at Site C Taxi Rank, and that "patient confidentiality is guaranteed".

Last year, a Cape Town woman was hauled before the Commission of Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration by her employer, who claimed she had handed in bogus sick certificates from a "Doctor S Malizo", also operating at Site C Taxi Rank. According to the law, a traditional healer can issue sick notes if they are registered with a professional council.

The Daily Voice enquired if the "doctor" was registered with the SA Medical Association, but they referred us to the African National Healers Association. SJ Mahlaba, of the African National Healers Association, told the Daily Voice that they had no Dr S Malizo registered with their organisation. "We have names of all the registered traditional healers on our national list [and Dr Malizo is not one of them]."

This week, management at the Khayelitsha store became suspicious when signatures on sick certificates from Dr Malizo didn't match. They sent in a spy and found that the "doctor and his associates" were operating out of a container at the taxi rank, and that one could "buy as many sick days as you wanted".

They asked not to be identified in order to protect the store and staff. The insider said: "I asked what the price was, they said R100. If I wanted it to be backdated it was an extra R30." A store manager said he noticed his staff was either booked off for "severe back pain" or "diarrhoea", or no illness was specified.

"There was no indication to say which ailment they had and all the signatures had discrepancies," he said. "We have had a high rate of absenteeism in the past few months." Another manager claimed that an employee used a sick note to get days off to go get married in the Eastern Cape.

"She went to the Eastern Cape and when she came back she was a makoti [a new bride]," said the manager. "She gave us a sick certificate from the same doctor." The manager said there is nothing they can do until a police investigation is launched. "When you call the telephone number on the certificate, you cannot reach the doctor," he said.

"We cannot do anything yet because we need the proof that this doctor isn't registered or fake." When the Daily Voice visited the "doctor" to ask for a sick note, Xhosa-speaking men turned us away.

Reference: IOL