By Johnathan Paoli
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are turning up the heat on Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela over appointment of three administrators to lead embattled Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).
They say the move reeks of cadre deployment and warn that the appointments risk entrenching corruption and maladministration in institutions already crippled by governance failures.
DA MP and national spokesperson Karabo Khakhau has lodged a formal request with the chairperson of the National Assembly’s Higher Education and Training Portfolio Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie, demanding that Manamela be summoned to explain the appointments in the committee’s first sitting of the third quarter.
“Manamela’s appointment of ANC cadres implicated in forensic reports detailing fraud, corruption and mismanagement of public funds is a new national scandal. We cannot have another minister appointing unfit ANC cadres to run SETAs by their own rules,” Khakhau said on Thursday.
This follows the recent appointment of Oupa Nkoane, Lehlohonolo Masoga and Zukile Mvalo as administrators of the Construction SETA, the Services SETA, and the Local Government SETA respectively.
The minister justified the intervention as necessary to address serious and entrenched governance failures in these entities, including procurement irregularities, lapses in oversight and broad instability.
However, both the DA and the EFF argue that these individuals carry their own baggage of corruption allegations and failed governance records, raising the risk that the cure may be worse than the disease.
Khakhau singled out Nkoane, a former municipal manager at Emfuleni Local Municipality, for special scrutiny.
Nkoane was cited in a forensic report implicating municipal officials in the mismanagement of R872 million.
The DA raised red flags about Masoga, a former ANC Limpopo MEC and deputy speaker, accused in a forensic probe of allegedly backdating a R4.4 million communications contract while CEO of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone.
As for Mvalo, the current deputy director-general overseeing skills development in the department, the DA said his eight-year oversight of all 21 SETAs has failed to produce any meaningful stabilisation.
“The minister claims these appointments will fix procurement irregularities and governance crises, but how can fraud and mismanagement be corrected by those implicated in it?” Khakhau asked.
The EFF has also gone on the offensive, writing directly to Manamela to question the legality of his interventions.
In a strongly worded letter, EFF MP Sihle Lonzi reminded the minister that previous political interference in SETA appointments, including the aborted process under his predecessor Nobuhle Nkabane, led to a collapse of trust in the system.
Lonzi warned that appointing sole administrators rather than duly constituted boards stripped SETAs of essential oversight safeguards.
“Boards ensure diversity of expertise, collective accountability, and robust checks and balances. Extended administration by a sole individual undermines transparency and weakens internal controls,” he wrote.
The EFF also raised the issue of compliance with the Skills Development Act, which sets out clear procedural requirements before SETAs can be placed under administration.
These include issuing formal written instructions to the affected SETAs, consultations with both the SETA boards and the National Skills Authority, and the use of Section 15(4) exceptions only in exceptional circumstances of financial mismanagement.
Lonzi demanded clarity on whether these steps had been followed or bypassed.
He cautioned that any failure to comply with Sections 14A and 15, or any decision that is not rational, necessary and proportionate, risked being reviewable as unlawful, invoking the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.
Both parties insist that SETAs, which are crucial for addressing South Africa’s skills gap and youth unemployment crisis, require leaders with clean records and independence from party-political networks.
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