Malusi Shezi reflects on Ceta's

During his tenure as CEO of the Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta), Malusi Shezi has overseen a remarkable turnaround in the organisation's performance, raising its achievement rate against its annual performance plans to 98%.

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Shezi took an institution at its lowest, where it was achieving 22% of its targets and with dwindling levies revenue below R380-million, to R798-million in 2024/25.

Most stakeholders were unhappy before Shezi started his tenure. Some had left Ceta for other setas, but this was transformed to a point where the confidence of stakeholders was restored.

Payment processes were streamlined and improved, resulting in no more learner strikes at Ceta premises because of unpaid stipends. Complaints from service providers for long unpaid invoices were also reduced.

Ceta staff at all levels were afforded learning and development opportunities previously reserved for management alone. To date, many have obtained Master's qualifications and are still growing their capabilities through various interventions.

A competent and suitably experienced management team was put in place. The challenges that plagued the Ceta were addressed to ensure the work environment is worker-centric, agile and fosters high performance.

A cleanup of the rot that crippled the Ceta before 2020 was undertaken, holding accountable those involved in corrupt activities. It is, however, a continuing journey to achieve clean governance and administration, said Shezi.

Under Shezi's leadership, processes were instituted to set aside irregular awards and to recover monies owed to the Ceta emanating from reported material irregularities of the past, and wastage was eliminated.

As he reflects on Ceta's progress under his leadership over the years, Shezi, who took over as CEO in September 2021, has stressed the need to continue building on the momentum to prioritise digitisation of learning programmes, embedding technologies like Build Information Modelling, sustainable stakeholder engagements.