Shacky Timburwa ‘PhD’ is a fraud - MP never graduated with Doctorate
In 2023 Shacky Timburwa claimed to have earned the title 'Dr' after years of hard work. The truth is he paid some money, attended a fake graduation ceremony and pretended to have earned that degree.
In 2023, Zanu PF MP Shacky Timburwa claimed to have graduated with a PhD - “the culmination of years of hard work, late nights and endless research”.
But this was a lie. It was all a facade.
Timburwa, who has gone on to use the title “Dr” in several engagements has been living a lie since.
Here is the inside of the story of how he pulled this con off.
How Zimbabwean MP Shacky Timburwa fooled everyone and got away with a fake graduation.
On November 4, 2023, several socialites, including some from Malawi and a Zimbabwean legislator received ‘doctorates’ at (not from) the University of South Africa.
But, it was a hoax - an elaborate scheme that UNISA was unaware of.
The said degrees did not exist. They were not awarded by UNISA. They were all make-believe.
Sure, the clique wore gowns. Yes, they held maroon placards engraved ‘graduation’. And yeah, they were physically at UNISA.
But that’s about that. It was a big con. Just a bunch of fellas pretending to get doctorates so they can pull wool over their followers online.
UNISA eventually found out, days later, and they disowned the Malawians.
But somehow, the Zimbabwean MP escaped retribution - even though he had attended the same ceremony.
The said MP is Zanu-PF’s Shackmore Wellington Timburwa, the MP for Chegutu West in Zimbabwe. He goes by Shacky Timburwa, which we will call him too.
This is how it happened.
Meet Isaiah Brian Sovi - the God Embassy pastor behind the whole fake degree scam
To understand the whole ruse - we have to rewind to the COVID era. And we have to introduce you to another character.
Sovi is listed online as an internet personality. He is a pastor or prophet of some sort. He supposedly runs the God Embassy church and has very strong links to several Zimbabwean pastors.
He calls himself a ‘doctor’ too. Go figure.
From what We Dug Up, Sovi was the first recipient of the UNISA fake degree on December 20, 2020.
However, unlike Walter Magaya who claimed in 2017 that he had been awarded an honorary one, and unlike the Malawians, Sovi did not claim his degree as an honorary one, he instead claimed to have attained an actual PhD.
Sovi has since deleted all links and references to this degree. He now claims another degree from a fake university. That story is the subject of another investigation of its own - so for now let’s concentrate on the false PhD that he claimed to have received.
Image: Isaiah Brian Sovi claimed to have graduated with a PhD from UNISA on December 20, 2020. He shared several pictures from the ceremony held at UNISA.
How Shacky Timburwa got his fake PhD?
Sometime in 2023, Shacky was approached by Isaiah Brian Sovi. Sovi told Timburwa that he could help him get a PhD from UNISA.
Between November 3 and 4, Timburwa travelled to South Africa where he purchased a gown, attended the ceremony, and “graduated”.
But, Timburwa, unlike the Malawians, did not claim to have been awarded an honorary doctorate after the ceremony. He went for the jugular and claimed that he had graduated with a PhD after years of study.
A now-deleted LinkedIn post from then reads:
”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!”
Here is the post in full below:
Image: Shacky Timburwa claimed to have earned a PhD…
The post has since been deleted after we brought it to his attention in detailed exchanges about what happened that day. But it’s Google footprint is still there.
You can see it below: The original link was here.
Image: Shacky Timburwa’s now-deleted post on Google Index.
On social media, many people rushe to congratulate him. A lot of these posts have since been deleted.
But, the thing with the internet is that - there is something called The Wayback Machine. It is an archive of most of the posts ever made on the internet. So you can get these back.
Take this video for example. It was posted by Shacky’s close associate, a woman. We tracked her down, but believe she is a vulnerable person and won’t reveal her identity.
But she confirmed she received the images from Timburwa himself. Timbirwa’s own TikTok liked and shared the video when it was posted.
We Dug Up found that Shacky Timburwa did not graduate from UNISA with a PhD. Like Walter Magaya, his name and details do not yield any results.
Timburwa, and to his credit confirmed as much himself.
In conversation with We Dug Up, Timburwa said he was made to believe the award was real. He says he travelled to South Africa under the impression it was “a genuine thing”.
But he says on arrival, he noticed there were problems. He says he did not recognise the staff, and that the way things were handled was far from how a professional institution would do things.
He says he contacted Sovi - and quizzed him about the authenticity of the award. We Dug Up reached out to Sovi. We sent emails, and messages via Instagram and also WhatsApp. The messages were read and ignored.
But here is where it gets murky.
Despite realising things were wrong, Shacky Timburwa proceeded to post about the award on his social media. He even went further and started to use the title Dr that he claimed he had “earned”.
In November 2024, an entire year after the debacle, Shacky Timburwa attended and spoke at a Thematic Lecture. The flyer, which he also shared, referred to him as Hon Dr Shacky Timburwa.
Here is the flyer below:
Image: Shacky Timburwa shared flyers where he fraudulently used the title Dr.
Shacky Timburwa told Dug Up he had been scammed and had held no malicious intent. He said he detested academic fraud.
However, there is a variance between what he said and what we found.
Every piece of evidence Dug Up supplied, to prove that we believe he was a fraud, was taken down soon after. Timburwa described those posts as oversights.
But, his official website, scrapped as of February 3, 2025, still refers to him as Honourable Dr Shacky Timburwa.
In case that goes down too, we have included a scrapped example below:
Image: Shacky Timburwa continues to claim he is a Dr even though he privately concedes that he did not earn any PhD in anything, anywhere.
There is another problem - his law degree from UZ is a ‘maybe degree’
Shacky Timburwa’s Wikipedia claims he attained a degree in Law at the University of Zimbabwe. This supposedly happened in 2023.
But, again, this is a lie.
Dug Up understands he is enrolled as a student, although the University did not respond to requests for comment.
A law professor at the University would not be drawn to confirm if he indeed was a student but seemed to concede there were issues with Timburwa’s claims of having graduated - but stated that it was improper for him to comment on issues that include his prospective students.
Timburwa himself told Dug Up he was enrolled at the UZ. However, he could not explain how his Wikipedia says he graduated - saying instead that he didn’t have control over what people post.
But, there is a problem.
Timburwa engaged a popular internet guru in Zimbabwe who he paid to curate and create his Wikipedia.
The said individual, who cannot be named to protect relationships with other clients, says the information he shared was supplied by Timburwa himself.
In essence, when creating Wikipedia and managing it, he relied on information that he received from Timburwa - which included claims he had already graduated with a degree in Law.
We have seen no evidence that this is the case - that Timburwa has this degree.
Wikipidea say no reference to this graduation exists and their moderators say his page will be flagged for being created in exchange for money. A senior moderator told Dug Up it was clear Wikipedia systems had been abused to create a puff appearance for Timburwa.
Forbes Africa 30 under 30
For many people, Timburwa burst onto the scene via the Forbes 30 under 30 list during lockdown.
But there are problems with that too.
In an interview in the Herald, released on February 4, Shacky told Tafadzwa Zimoyo that he had been nominated and included in the list.
Timburwa said: “I was nominated and Forbes Africa contacted me for the application process and the criteria, which I did and I was successful,”
We Dug Up something different though.
Timburwa approached a local curator who did the bidding for him to be included in that list.
Money changed hands. And not in a legal nor moral way. That’s the long and short of it.
What we couldn’t prove was if the people at Forbes were aware of Timburwa’s reputation or that he had paid off someone for the said inclusion.
We reached out to Forbes.com. Forbes Africa is their affiliation. They are working on it and will get back to us.
An appetite for accolades at any cost
Throughout the Dug Up investigation, we kept bumping into things. Little bits of information that seem to suggest there is a pattern of deception.
In fairness to Timburwa, he did not rush to send threats - something we have encountered a lot since starting investigations on religious figures that are simultaneously academic frauds.
He engaged. He explained that he was scammed. But, we have not been able to prove that.
The contact details he supplied of the woman who organised his fake graduation did not yield any leads whatsoever.
Sovi did not respond to confirm it indeed they were both scammed.
Here is what we know and what we dug up:
In 2023 Timburwa participated in a sham graduation ceremony. Despite claiming that he realised something was wrong, he proceeded to claim he had earned a PhD and went around town calling himself a doctor.
Timburwa began pulling down posts sometime in 2024. So did his accomplice Sovi. But he also continued to use the title and allowed others to use it.
UNISA does not have any record of Timburwa graduating with a PhD. His claim of attaining a Doctorate in International Relations is false.
Timburwa does not have a law degree either and the reputation managers who made his Wikipedia relied on the information he submitted.
There are questions about Timburwa’s inclusion in Forbes Africa's 30-under-30 list. Dug Up understands a curator was paid for this. Forbes, the organisations say they are looking into this.
Dug Up has contacted the University of Zimbabwe for comment. As Timburwa is their registered student, his fraudulent claims of holding a PhD ought to normally mean he should be deregistered. They are yet to respond.
Dug Up has also contacted the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) for comment. As Timburwa appeared at paid events pretending to be a Dr, there is a case to be made that he perpetuated actual fraud on top of academic fraud.
Dug Up has contacted Forbes and is trying to build the correct picture of how Timburwa was included in the 30-under-30 list. We also asked them to comment on revelations Shacky is an academic fraud and if they will recall his nomination.
Shacky Timburwa denies any wrongdoing. He maintains he is innocent and the victim of a scam.
His PhD is a hoax. That we know for a fact.
But you can make up your mind…
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