Addressing Nepotism and Irregularities in South Africa's SETAs

IOL News

25-06-2025

Dr Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and the director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale).
Image: Supplied
The recent SETA debacle in South Africa once again highlights the prevalence of nepotism and the continuation of irregularities in South Africa.
The long-term vision of the role of these SETAs seems to be forgotten. Their purpose is closely aligned with minimising the economic gap between citizens through skills development and employment creation thereafter.
However, the choices some individuals have made to manage these sects with no application of good governance principles, and a lack of ethics, these national objectives are yet to be met.
At the onset of our democracy, both the Congress of the South Africa Trade Union (COSATU) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) demanded a new approach to skills development.
Their stance brought about the establishment of SETAS. South Africa has 21 SETAs established in line with the Skills Development Act (SDA) 97 of 1998 to develop and implement the Sector Skills Plan (SSP).
The purpose of SETAs is to identify skill shortages in their respective sectors. Over the last decade, cases of maladministration, mismanagement of funds, and procedural irregularities have been numerous and have gone unaddressed, benefiting many.
The recent decision by The Higher Education Minister to appoint prominent ANC officials (politicians) as board members was scrutinised, yet the scrutiny and the public awareness do not achieve the desired outcome which should entail modification, transparency in appointment processes as well and unbiased decision-making processes.
The nomination process has been flawed and lacks a structured framework like many other boards in South Africa.
The minister then indicated that she would nominate an independent panel to manage the new appointment and take responsibility for eliciting suitable candidates for these positions.
The present appointees' qualifications were made known, but we question the relevance of their academic qualifications to the skills and training sector in which they are expected to govern and oversee efficiently.
As indicated by numerous journalists, many of these new appointees have not had relevant work experience that is aligned with these board positions and the associated responsibilities.
We can then also question if they have adequate knowledge and expertise in the relevant skills and training area and if they have professional experience to guide and offer timeous and relevant measures to manage conflicts and challenges within these SETA sects, yet their present political positions became a core rationale for their appointments.
Amidst the appointment of persons to these boards, we have experienced numerous incidents of fraud, embezzlement, and corruption within all the sects of the SETAS, and yet the lack of accountability and transparency continues.
SETAs are designated as public enterprises under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) 29 of 1999 which means that all financial expenditure needs to be declared to the national government through annual reports.
Central to their responsibilities is their ability to identify the skill shortages among South Africans, so that appropriate training and skilling take place to empower our people and eradicate poverty as well as build our economy.
But more importantly, years later we are still unaware of the technique and methodology employed by these governing bodies to identify the various skill shortages within the different sects.
A research study conducted by academics (Matha & Jahed) in 2024 stipulated that the methodology employed to identify skill shortages needs to be reassessed and re-evaluated.
Their rationale is that the principles and criteria are unclear and lack an appropriate systematic analysis that can effectively reveal what the measures and criteria are.
In addition, the workplace is becoming increasingly complex, which means that job portfolios as well as employment opportunities are being continually modified and evolving to meet the new requirements of a globalised economy that is functioning in the realms of a 5th Industrial revolution, which is predicted to be conflated with technological advancements such as robotics and coding.
In addition, job descriptions have also become far more broad and complex in multiple ways. South Africans have had to improvise and multi-task within their places of work. The challenges lie at the very top, where board members need to meet stringent criteria to be selected.
Central to these criteria is their capacity to really look at new ways of developing an accurate approach to identifying a skill shortage in South Africa.
Traditionally many of these boards have been relying on identifying skills scarcity in job descriptions that are labeled as 'difficult to fill'.
The debacle lies in how these portfolios have evolved, whether are they still termed correctly, and how other educated or skilled persons fill these gaps.
Board members who are nominated to govern SETAS need to be aware of the multiple facets that need to be addressed in South Africa.
Their roles too have to be as holistic as possible to address all of the above pending challenges.