The DA has rejected higher education minister Buti Manamela's sector education and training authority (Seta) takeover, claiming he has appointed corruption-tainted individuals.
The minister announced Oupa Nkoane, Lehlohonolo Masoga and Zukile Mvalo as the construction, services and local government Seta administrators, respectively.
Nkoane is a former municipal manager at the ANC-governed Emfuleni local municipality in Gauteng. The DA said he is implicated in a forensic report that details the mismanagement of R872m in the municipality.
Masoga, a former ANC Limpopo MEC and deputy speaker, was allegedly implicated in a forensic report for backdating a communications contract worth R4.4m as CEO of the Musina-Makhado special economic zone. This was seen to justify unjustified payments made to communications company Mahuma Group.
Mvalo is deputy director-general responsible for skills development in the department of higher education since 2017.
“All 21 Setas have been reporting directly to him for the past eight years. He has failed at stabilising Setas and has no prospect of fixing anything,” the DA said.
Manamela said his decision marks the first step in stabilising the governance failures in the entities, which include procurement irregularities, lapses in oversight and board instability which have threatened their ability to deliver on their mandate to advance skills development.
“We cannot allow governance failures to erode the public’s confidence in our skills development system. The administrators have a clear mandate to restore integrity, enforce consequence management where necessary and ensure learners and workers are not prejudiced by institutional weaknesses. Our goal is to reposition Setas so they can contribute effectively to the fight against unemployment, poverty and inequality,” he said.
The DA believes the appointees are unfit. According to party spokesperson and DA MP Karabo Khakhau, the cohort has allegedly "been previously implicated in corruption, mismanagement and fraud in previous government jobs or have proved themselves useless in the Seta space".
The names were gazetted on Tuesday after years of corruption, mismanagement and serious rot reflected in the auditor-general's reports uncovering irregularities.
“Will minister Manamela fail his first test of ANC cadre deployment, or will he go down the same path as Nobuhle Nkabane [who was fired as higher education and training minister by President Cyril Ramaphosa]? Minister Manamela announced the appointments, saying they are to address serious and entrenched governance failures in the entities. How can this be addressed by corruption, fraud and mismanagement implicated ANC cadres?”
The party has written to the minister demanding he reverse the decision.
“We demand Manamela stop this and appoint independent non-political persons free of corruption implications to deliver an effective turnaround of the system. The DA has written an urgent letter to minister Manamela to demand his reconsideration of the appointments and withdrawal of his announcement.”
The minister's announcement hailed the three appointed administrator's educational background and skill sets.
He has not yet responded to the concerns raised by colleagues in the government of national unity.
Nkabane fell to her demise after a Seta board chair deployment scandal that plagued her brief tenure. The controversy led to her axing.
This is a developing story.
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