Daily Maverick reports that Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane ditched a key parliamentary meeting on Friday on the contentious appointment of Sector Education and Training Authority board chairpersons, leaving officials she claimed helped with the process to face the heat.
She chose instead to attend a march against gender-based violence and address students at Buffalo City TVET College in the Eastern Cape. Nkabane was meant to clarify her controversial appointment of 21 Sector Education Training Authority (Seta) board chairpersons – many with ANC ties – at the Higher Education Portfolio Committee meeting. MPs on the portfolio committee expressed dissatisfaction and frustration on Friday. Only two of the five officials Nkabane claimed advised her on the appointments appeared before the committee on Friday; the other three were absent. In June, Nkabane told MPs her appointment of the 21 Seta chairpersons was guided by an advisory group that included advocate Terry Motau SC, her chief of staff Nelisiwe Semane, Seta director Mabuza Ngubane, the department’s deputy director-general Rhulani Ngwenya, and adviser Asisipho Solani. That claim is falling apart. Motau has since denied being formally appointed or involved in the final selection. Semane, Ngubane and Ngwenya have also distanced themselves from the process, raising serious questions about the truthfulness of the minister’s account. MPs have now called for the minister to be subjected to the Ethics Committee after she allegedly misled the committee about the independent Seta panel.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siyabonga Goni at Daily Maverick
- Read too, Minister’s absence sparks tension over Seta appointments, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- En ook, Ongelukkigheid ná Nkabane belangrike parlementsvergadering misloop, by Maroela Media
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