Six police officers will appear in the Machadodorp Magistrate's Court on Friday for their alleged involvement in producing fake university, matric, driving academy and artisan qualifications, Mpumalanga police said.

Captain Leonard Hlathi said a 25-year-old man commissioned to produce the fake certificates would also appear. He was arrested on Thursday after a tip-off.

Hlathi said another 13 reservist police constables would be charged later in the week with uttering, fraud and forgery.

He said the 25-year-old tried to lock himself in his house in Emthonjeni township, near Machadodorp, when police arrived to arrest him.

When they got the door open, they found an array of computer hard drives, printers, pirated DVDs and CDs, computer programmes and a device to print ATM bank cards.

Hlathi said he produced, among others, boilermaker certificates, civil engineering degrees, and diplomas.

He said the man charged R50 for a fake certified copy and R350 for an original, that most people opted for the copy.

"All the reserve constables who have tried to be enlisted as police officials with the fraudulent certificates, their future in the police is bleak, because we have no room for such people in the police service," said Hlathi.

Their copied certificates allegedly all contained the same serial number, raising questions about the way the documents were verified when the reservists were signed on, he said.

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