The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply concerned by the noxious cloud surrounding the appointment of Sectoral Education Training Authorities (SETAs) Board Chairpersons by the Minister for Higher Education and Training, Ms. Nobuhle Nkabane, and her troubling sense of irritation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee holding her accountable in this regard. 

Transparency and accountability by the executive to the legislature, is a cornerstone of South Africa’s hard-won constitutional democracy.  Workers have paid the price when Parliament failed to fulfill its constitutional mandate over the state, in particular State-Owned Enterprises and municipalities, during the decade of state capture. 

The executive needs to show the necessary humility when asked to account by Parliament on behalf of the public.  This is not a benevolent indulgence but the duty of all Ministers and other members of the executive.  We hope that the Minister has learned a lesson in humility and will embrace her constitutional obligations to be transparent and accountable to Parliament.

Whilst COSATU has been dismayed by the Minister’s conduct in Parliament, we are more deeply worried by the criteria the Minister utilised to select proposed Chairpersons of the SETA Boards.  A cursory glance of the proposed names reveals a shocking lack of experience and understanding of the skills development and training needs of the various economic sectors that the SETAs are tasked with providing.  It is critical that the SETA Boards, including their leadership, and more importantly their training programmes, be firmly anchored upon providing workers with the skills required by their workplaces and the economy at large.

SETAs are established to invest in the skills of workers, to ensure they have the skills required for the jobs of today and tomorrow’s economy, to boost workplace productivity, unlock economic growth and thus tackle unemployment.  All too often reports, including at Parliament, have painted a deeply depressing picture of corruption, nepotism, wasteful expenditure and collusion by persons in government and the private sector to loot funds intended to skill workers.  These have added to the burdens facing an economy that has been stumbling along at 1% growth for more than a decade, dangerously high unemployment at 43.1% overall and 72% for youth, and an economy increasingly uncompetitive globally.

An overhaul of the SETAs to ensure that they deliver upon their mandate to invest in workers’ skills and training needs, and are cleansed of the remnants of state capture, is long overdue. 

Issued by COSATU

Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)

Cell: 082 785 0687

Email: mat…@cosatu.org.za