In a bizarre and disturbing comedy of errors, the minister of higher education & training, Nobuhle Nkabane, this week “apologised” to advocate Terry Motau for falsely dragging his name into the saga of her dubious political appointments to the R19bn sector education & training authorities (Setas).
Nkabane, hailed in ANC circles as a rising star, is at the centre of a self-created storm in the aftermath of revelations that her picks for chairs of the 21 Seta boards were all ANC-linked political appointments.
Her shortlist included former ANC KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the ANC’s former KZN co-ordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu, and the son of mining minister Gwede Mantashe, Buyambo Mantashe. Gwede Mantashe was Nkabane’s boss when she was deputy minister of mineral resources & energy.
The politically charged appointments to the helm of big-budget training authorities were exposed by DA MP Karabo Khakhau, who has doggedly pushed for the minister to account for her actions.
After an outcry when the board nominations were made public, Nkabane was summoned to Luthuli House by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Shortly thereafter, she announced that she had heard the concerns of the public and would be reversing the appointments and going back to the drawing board.
However, she was already scheduled to appear before parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education. That lengthy sitting was agonising as the minister was grilled by MPs including Khakhau, the EFF’s Sihle Lonzi and the Patriotic Alliance’s Ashley Sauls.
“It was clear from the outset that she was taking us for a ride,” Khakhau tells the FM, “but she didn’t anticipate our unrelenting spirit in actually following the case. She thought that if she just withdrew the appointments, we would let it go. And I was like, hell no! We want to know how you got to those decisions, because we can’t have the same thing happening again with the next process.”
During the portfolio sitting Nkabane chewed disdainfully (for which she later apologised) as she responded to questions, then turned on her own ANC party member and chair of the higher education committee, Tebogo Letsie, when he asked her what made a person “credible” in her view.
It’s exactly how it’s defined when you google. In the encyclopedia, you’ll see what it means, exactly that
— Nobuhle Nkabane
“It’s exactly how it’s defined when you google. In the encyclopedia, you’ll see what it means, exactly that,” she said, mid-mastication.
“You are not going to respond to us, minister?” Letsie asked.
“I’ve responded, chair,” she said.
During her cringeworthy parliamentary performance, Nkabane claimed that an “independent panel” had assisted her in making the appointments. However, she refused to be drawn on who the panel members were.
“The minute you say ‘yes’ [to a ministerial post],” Khakhau said during the sitting, “you say ‘each and every decision I take is open to scrutiny’. That is the spirit the minister is supposed to have in answering questions about the decisions she takes under the payroll of the Republic of South Africa.”
Lonzi was equally forceful: “Even if we are not paying these people [the ‘independent panel’], they have public power, they have influence over the minister, they advise the minister on how public money is spent and clearly the minister takes them very seriously because she says she listened to this panel.”
The imbroglio caught the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who requested a report from the minister on her conduct in parliament, chewing included, as well as the process to appoint the Seta chairs.
It emerged when the names of panel members were published that they were not independent at all. They were officials from Nkabane’s department, including her own adviser. Motau, whom she named as the chair of the panel, appeared to be the only truly independent member.
Except that he had nothing to do with it.
In his widely leaked letter to the minister, he said he became aware of having been named chair of the selection panel through media reports only. He stated categorically that he had played no role in the reviewing or assessing of nominations. “I did not participate in the process,” Motau wrote.
Even the ANC raised concerns, with MP David Kgabo arguing that the panel appeared to be an extension of the director-general’s office, casting a shadow over the entire process.
Khakhau reported Nkabane to the ethics committee for lying to parliament. She has also lodged a complaint with the public protector over Nkabane’s conduct and called on Letsie to initiate criminal charges against her for misleading parliament.
“It is a criminal offence to lie to parliament,” Khakhau tells the FM. “The minister clearly misled us. She was the one who went and released the list of people that don’t exist, including advocate Motau and a ‘secret agent’ that she still doesn’t want to identify.”
In her statement this week, Nkabane issued an almost-apology to Motau, saying she was not aware that she had not finalised his appointment and that he had not participated. She would inform parliament that he had not been part of the panel she thought she had appointed, and she had not meant to create a false impression about him taking part.
She said she regretted the “confusion caused”.
It is clear that Nkabane’s sins amount to a lot more than merely causing “confusion”. This is about a shady politician seeking desperately to untangle a web of lies she spun around herself and her dodgy appointments. There, it’s simple.
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