Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Chegutu West MP Shackmore Wellington Timburwa does not hold a PhD in International Relations from the University of South Africa (UNISA), contrary to his assertions, as revealed by We Dug Up.
Investigations conducted by UK-based Zimbabwean journalist Maynard Manyowa and his team uncovered that Timburwa never graduated with the doctorate he claimed to possess.
In 2023, Timburwa, a member of ZANU PF, announced his purported academic achievement on LinkedIn. However, this post has since been deleted. He wrote at the time:
It’s official – I’ve crossed the finish line and earned my Doctorate in International Relations! At the age of 31-years-old. The culmination of years of hard work, late nights and endless research. Ready to tackle the world’s challenges with this new title and knowledge in hand!
However, in a post on X, Manyowa said that We Dug Up uncovered the degree to be fraudulent. The exposé alleges that Timburwa was approached by the controversial figure Isaiah Brian Sovi, who purportedly offered assistance in securing a PhD from UNISA. Wrote Manyowa.
On 3 November, 2023. Shacky posts that he has graduated with a PhD in International Relations. He says this is “the culmination of years of hard work”. He boasts of his title ‘Dr’ aged just 31.
But, none of it was true. It was bogus.
This is what had really happened:
Shacky travelled to South Africa, paid a conman, bought a gown, went to the UNISA campus, and participated in a sham graduation where they all pretended to be getting PhDs. He takes pics…
It is all bogus though. Shacky did not enrol for a PhD at UNISA, or at any other university. He did not conduct any research nor did he graduate anywhere.
But how did this happen? How did he get to this point.
Well, it all starts in 2020. In the heat of lockdown.
A Zambian pastor, Isiaih Brian Sovi, claims to have graduated from UNISA with a PHD. @Mwebantu
disappointingly helps spread that fake story. But in their defence, nobody knows at the time that Sovi’s PHD is fake.
Anyways, in 2023 Sovi offers to help Shacky get the same PhD.
Shacky agrees. He goes through the same process but in 2024, we catch on to the scam. We put these allegations to him. He admits straight away that he doesn’t have a PhD and says he was scammed. He says he realised this the very day. And he even confronted Sovi about it – he says.
But there is a problem. Between 2023 and 2025 Shacky continues to use the title Dr. It appears on his website, his socials and flyers. We smell a rat, so we continue digging. Then we discover the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Nothing makes sense and we soon find it was a paid curation.
We also find that on Wikipedia, Shacky is listed as having completed his Law degree in 2023. However, our investigation finds that he is still a student. We track down the person who was paid to do his Wikipedia. He tells us he wrote what Shacky told him to write.
Shacky maintains he was scammed. But we notice, he was scammed out of an honorary degree. He in turn claimed he had graduated. No satisfactory answer is provided for this. We also ask why he was paying for a doctorate to begin with. The responses are equally elusive.
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