{"id":50609,"date":"2026-02-23T03:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=50609"},"modified":"2026-02-23T03:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:30:56","slug":"eff-wants-manamelas-seta-ceo-appointments-declared-invalid-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/23\/eff-wants-manamelas-seta-ceo-appointments-declared-invalid-unlawful\/","title":{"rendered":"EFF wants Manamela&#8217;s Seta CEO appointments declared &#8216;invalid and &#8216;unlawful&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Manamela as minister after firing Nobuhle Nkabane from her post.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The EFF is taking Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela to court over the appointments to the Sector Education and Training Authorities (Seta) boards.<\/p>\n<p>Manamela appointed eight executives to the Seta board last year.<\/p>\n<p>The EFF launched an application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, seeking a declaration that Manamela\u2019s Seta appointments are \u201cinvalid and unlawful\u201d and that they be set aside.<\/p>\n<p>In total, there are 18 Seta chairs and CEOs.<\/p>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Manamela as minister after firing Nobuhle Nkabane from her post, after being embroiled in allegations of corruption and the illegal appointment of the Seta board, including accusations that she misled Parliament by providing false information about the procedure for appointing Seta chairs \u2013 a list dominated by ANC cadres \u2013 and about the composition of the panel that made the appointments.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-application\">Application<\/h3>\n<p>The primary legal basis for the EFF\u2019s application to review and set aside the appointments of the Seta CEOs is that Manamela\u2019s conduct in appointing the CEOs after the board had met only once to review how the CEOs had performed over the previous five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first respondent\u2019s conduct is also procedurally unfair because the Accounting Authorities responsible for recommending the re-appointments were newly constituted, had no demonstrable knowledge of the performance histories of the incumbents, and were afforded less than 24 hours to convene, evaluate, and recommend extensions of five-year executive appointments for multiple Seta\u2019s,\u201d argued EFF MP Sihle Lonzi in his affidavit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s the president\u2019s prerogative\u2019: Nkabane responds as critics demand her axing<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-appointments\">Appointments<\/h3>\n<p>In its application, the EFF questioned the following CEO appointments:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Yershen Pillay, Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority<\/li>\n<li>Ayanda Mafuleka, Financial and Accounting Services Seta<\/li>\n<li>Felleng Yende, Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Seta<\/li>\n<li>Gugu Mkhize, Insurance Seta<\/li>\n<li>Matome Madibana, Media, Information and Communication Technologies Seta<\/li>\n<li>Thabo Shadrack Mashongoane, Mining Qualifications Authority<\/li>\n<li>Tom Mkhwanazi, Wholesale and Retail<\/li>\n<li>Nokuthula Selamolela, FoodBev Manufacturing Seta<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In his affidavit, Lonzi argued, \u201cThe purpose of the application is to seek an order of the Court in the following terms: Declaring that the decision and\/or conduct of the First Respondent (Manamela) in appointing the respondents and CEO\u2019s of the various Seta\u2019s constituted administrative action that is procedurally unfair, irrational, unlawful, and invalid, and reviewing and setting aside such appointments in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (\u2018PAJA\u2019), alternatively in terms of the constitutional principle of legality.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-clear-mandate\">\u2018Clear mandate\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>In August last year, Manamela, during a portfolio committee hearing, said the Seta appointments had a clear mandate to restore integrity, enforce consequence management and ensure that students and workers are not prejudiced.<\/p>\n<p>However, DA portfolio committee member for higher education, Karabo Khakhau, said these appointments did not inspire confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese appointees are unfit \u2013 implicated in corruption, mismanagement, fraud in previous government jobs \u2013 or have proved themselves useless in the Seta space already,\u201d said Khakhau.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, a study found that while the Setas are created to address the country\u2019s skills shortage and improve South Africans\u2019 employability, they instead cost R20 billion per year in tax money and reach only 0.6% of the workforce.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0SETA not resolving skills shortage, just eating our tax money<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#EFF #Manamelas #Seta #CEO #appointments #declared #invalid #unlawful<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Manamela as minister after firing Nobuhle Nkabane from her post. The EFF is taking Higher Education&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50611,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50609\/revisions\/50611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}