Buti Manamela under fire for latest SETA appointments
This week, Manamela appointed Oupa Nkoane, Lehlohonolo Masoga, and Zukile Mvalo as Construction SETA (CETA), Services SETA, and Local Government SETA (LGSETA) administrators. However, the individuals have been implicated in corruption, mismanagement, and fraud in previous government jobs.
DA spokesperson and member of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, Karabo Khakhau, said the party has written an urgent letter to Manamela to demand his reconsideration of these appointments and withdrawal of his announcement.
Khakhau said the appointees are unfit- implicated in corruption, mismanagement, fraud in previous government jobs – or have proved themselves useless in the SETA space already. Oupa Nkoane is a former municipal manager at the ANC-governed Emfuleni Local Municipality in Gauteng. He is implicated in a forensic report that details the mismanagement of R872 million in this municipality. Lehlohonolo Masoga is a former ANC Limpopo MEC & Deputy Speaker. Khakhau said he was implicated in a forensic report by forensic services company Morar for backdating a communications contract worth R4.4 million as the CEO of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone – this was seen to justify unjustified payments made to communications company, Mahuma Group. Lastly, Zukile Mvalo is the current Deputy Director General responsible for skills development in the Department of Higher Education, and has been since 2017. All 21 SETAs have been reporting directly to him for the past 8 years. He has failed at stabilising SETAs for the past eight years, and has no prospect of fixing anything suddenly now.
'Minister Manamela announced these appointments saying they are to address serious and entrenched governance failures in these entities, including procurement irregularities, lapses in oversight, and board instability – how on earth can this be addressed by corruption, fraud, mismanagement and implicated ANC cadres?
'We demand that Manamela stop this, and appoint independent non-political persons free of corruption implications to deliver an effective turnaround of the system,' she added.
Earlier this year Manamela's predecessor Nobuhle Nkabane also came under fire for controversial SETA board appointments which were later withdrawn.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the DA raised concerns about the political proximity of individuals appointed as chairpersons of various SETA boards. These include former KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube who is now Manamela's deputy, Gwede Mantashe's son Buyambo Mantashe, Head of Department in the KZN Department of Transport Siboniso Mbhele, and former KZN MEC of Economic Development and Tourism Mike Mabuyakhulu.
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