Dear Editor
The DA welcomes that Parliament’s House Chairperson has now intervened to override Committee Chairperson Tebogo Letsie. Letsie was trying to stifle accountability and the democratic function of parliament by refusing to call Minister Manamela to account for his new cadre deployment scandal.
Now, after National Assembly House Chairperson responsible for Committees and Oversight, Mr. CT Frolick intervened, Minister Manamela has been called to appear before the Committee on 19 September 2025.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) had, on 22 August 2025, written to Frolick requesting his intervention in holding Manamela accountable for his SETA “administrators” appointments.
We wrote to Frolick after Chairperson of the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, Mr. Tebogo Letsie rejected the DA’s demand that the committee calls Minister Manamela to account for the growing scandal of new ANC cadre deployments as SETA “administrators”
Letsie wrongly called the DA’s request for Minister Manamela to come to Parliament to account as “premature.”
Manamela’s appointment of ANC cadres implicated in forensic reports that detail acts of fraud, corruption, and the mismanagement of public funds, as SETA “administrators” is a new national scandal. Holding him accountable for this decision is not premature at all, it is high time!
Manamela must explain to Parliament what justifies the appointments of Mr. Nkoane, Mr. Masoga and Mr. Mvalo.
The DA is appalled that over and above the corruption and fraud taint of this matter, an article published by News24 showed that Mr. Nkoane had not received any communication of his appointment as “Administrator” of the CETA, before it was publicly announced.
If the revelations about Nkoane are true, they would constitute a procedural irregularity in his appointment and would, at worst, constitute maladministration by Minister Manamela. This must be probed by the Committee.
To get to the truth, the DA has also requested that Nkoane appears before Parliament to test these claims. Nkoane must appear and give his version under oath in Parliament too.
The DA’s fight against corruption, ANC cadre deployment, and abuse of South Africans in the Higher Education and SETA space, by successive ANC Ministers, goes on with full determination.
We can not have another Minister appointing unfit ANC cadres to follow his own rules across SETAs.
Regards
Karabo Khakhau MP
DA Deputy Spokesperson on Higher Education