Outa says putting a Seta under administration ‘does not magically clean it up’.
Civil action organisation Outa is calling for urgent reform of the sector education and training authorities (Seta) and warns that the minister’s intervention is not enough. Three Setas were placed under administration, but Outa says real change requires credible boards and ethical CEOs.
The new minister of higher education, Buti Manamela, placed three Setas under administration last week. However, Wayne Duvenage, CEO of Outa, says the decision to place three of the Setas under administration is a sign of how deep the rot runs but this is not a solution on its own.
The Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta), the Services SETA (SSETA) and the Local Government SETA (LGSETA) were placed under administration. The administrators for each Seta were announced in notices gazetted on 19 August.
Outa investigated these entities for years and exposed inflated contracts, irregular spending and leadership failures. Whistleblowers and forensic reports backed up what Outa uncovered, making this drastic step unavoidable, Duvenage says.
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Putting Seta under administration does not automatically clean it up
“Putting a Seta under administration does not magically clean it up. We saw this movie before: Setas placed under administration only to slide back into chaos once the dust settles. This time it must be different.”
Duvenage says despite the seriousness of this intervention, the minister’s decision falls short because the Insurance Seta (Inseta), which has its own serious governance failures, was left untouched while Outa’s investigations already highlighted governance and financial failures at it.
“Leaving it off the list raises serious questions about selective action by the minister.”
Outa is also concerned about the administrators themselves. Duvenage says at least two of them are facing allegations of maladministration and corruption.
“You do not fix a leaking roof by handing the job to the contractor who botched it last time. This looks like cadre deployment, not a clean-up.”
Outa investigated and exposed maladministration, inflated contracts, irregular expenditure and leadership failures at a number of Setas for years. Whistleblower accounts and forensic findings consistently reinforced Outa’s evidence of widespread abuse.
In July, Outa staged a protest at Ceta’s offices to highlight the governance collapse and although Ceta tried to discredit the protest as “unlawful”, it was legal and necessary to shine a light on the abuse of public funds, Duvenage says.
“Continuous media pressure and civil society interventions have since made it impossible for these issues to be ignored.”
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What administrators will do at Setas
The administrators now assume full control of the management and oversight of the three Setas. Their mandate, in terms of the Skills Development Act and gazetted instructions, includes executing directives from the department of higher education and training, stabilising financial and governance systems, recruiting and appointing new CEOs and implementing the findings of investigation reports.
Outa believes this should specifically include the Duja report on Ceta and the Werksmans report on the SSETA. Duvenage also points out that the status of the current CEOs remains unclear, but the instruction to appoint new leadership suggests a change is imminent.
However, Duvenage warns, administration should never be an open-ended holding pattern. “Outa urges the administration period be limited and not be extended beyond 2025, when credible boards must be appointed.
“These boards must then recruit ethical, professional CEOs to steer the Setas back to their core mandate: funding skills development. Therefore, Outa calls for a two-month deadline for administrators to hand over to credible boards, transparent and ethical recruitment of new CEOs, protection for whistleblowers who exposed the corruption and consequence management for those implicated in maladministration.”
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Billions flowing into Setas is taxpayers’ and employers’ money
Duvenage says the billions that flow into the Setas belong to taxpayers and employers. “That money is meant to build the skills our young people need, not bankroll corruption networks. Whistleblowers risked everything to bring this rot into the open – their sacrifices must lead to real change.”
Outa has written to Manamela to request a formal meeting with him where the organisation will propose limiting the administration period and request urgent meetings with the Ceta and SSETA administrators.