Parliamentary committee seeks clarity on SETA administration decisions

THE Higher Education Portfolio Committee wants Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela to explain why he placed three Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAS) under administration.

- MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA

This comes after Manamela failed to give an explanation when the committee asked him to do so last week; instead, he notified MPs that he had requested the Public Service Commission (PSC) to vet the administrators.

Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie wrote to the minister on Monday, indicating that they expected the answers to the questions posed to him last week.

Letsie first wrote to Manamela last Tuesday, the same day he announced the administrators, wanting to know his reasons for placing Local Government SETA, Services SETA, and Construction SETA under administration.

"We wrote not because we want to undermine his responsibilities that are given to him by the Skills Development Act as a minister, but so that we could be able to account to the people of South Africa," he told Newzroom Afrika.

Letsie also said Manamela responded only on Saturday, stating that he was subjecting the appointments to the PSC and was willing to come before the committee to account.