The Higher Education Portfolio Committee will engage with the parliamentary legal services on the process to be followed regarding people who misled Parliament over the cancelled appointments of the chairpersons for the boards of the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA).

This emerged on Wednesday when the portfolio committee discussed the names of the independent panel Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane submitted on Tuesday after she had asked for an extension.

In her letter to the committee, Nkabane disclosed panel members without providing their profiles as Advocate Terry Motau, who reportedly did not attend any meetings, Asisipho Solani, Nelisiwe Semane, Mabuza Ngubane, and Rhulani Ngwenya.

It has emerged that the “volunteers” and “independent” panel consisted of Solani, who is the ministerial advisor, Semane, the chief of staff in her office, Ngubane, the chief director responsible for SETA coordination, and Ngwenya, the department’s deputy director-general for corporate services.

One of the panelists was not named because the person was not comfortable with their name being disclosed.

During the committee’s meeting, DA MP Karabo Khakhau complained that Nkabane revealed five names, and one person was not known to the committee.

“The reason the minister states that the person is uncomfortable with them being known is ludicrous in my understanding, particularly when we maintain the point that it is not up to the minister to decide whether or not they are to comply with the request of Parliament. It is up to Parliament to dictate these terms,” Khakhau said.

She said the named panel members should be called to appear before Parliament and furnish the full details of minutes of the meetings they held, as well as the reports subsequently sent to the National Skills Authority for final consideration of recommended SETA boards chairpersons.

Khakhau stated that Motau was of interest because he has a R2 million tender with the City of Joburg, from the department led by member of the mayoral committee Loyiso Masuku, who was recommended for one of the SETA board chairpersonships.

Apart from naming Solani, Semane, and Rhulani as employees of the department, Khakhau said Ngubane “lied directly to my face when I asked if he knew anything about the process and the panel, and he unequivocally said, NO, he knows nothing”.

“These are the people the minister said sat on the panel, in addition to the concealed name. Those people must come and account accordingly.”

She reminded the committee of being guilty of a criminal offence for lying to Parliament.

“I would like to suggest that you, as the chairperson, must consider to go lay criminal charges on behalf of this committee for people who lied before the committee. The evidence is there, and Hansard (Parliament recording services) can provide us with that information, and we should be able to get legal advice to get that process running,” Khakhau said.

 ANC MP David Kgabo echoed Khakhau’s sentiments that the named members of the independent panel should appear before the committee.

Kgabo said Nkabane and Director-General Nkosinathi Sishi should also appear to explain their interpretation of an independent panel.

“We would plead with them not to send us to Google or an encyclopedia. It would be their interpretation of an independent panel, because what you are seeing here is nothing independent but rather an extension of the administration office of the director-general,” he said.

MK Party MP Mnqobi Msezane said Nkabane should explain why Motau never attended the panel’s meetings.

ANC MP Tshepo Louw said they were not faced with misleading or taking of South Africans backwards, but by the panel supposedly to be volunteers who were employees of the department and accountable to the director-general.

“We must bring the minister here to account for everything she said in this committee. She must tell us where she got the responses she was giving us,” Louw said.

Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls said it was clear, based on what was before the committee, that the minister lied to them and the panel was not independent.

“We must remind the minister that she is legally obligated to tell the committee who all the panelists are, not some,” Sauls said.

Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie said they will write a letter to the Ministry informing them to come and respond to the issues that were raised on a date to be determined.

“We must say that we are very disappointed that we received the list we received. It is extremely disappointing because we spent literally the whole of the day on 30 May dealing with a few things.

“One of them was the independence of the panel itself. The other was the credibility of the process, the accountability of the process, and beyond reproach part of the process. I must say that the list we have received does not inspire confidence,” Letsie said.

He also said there was a process to be followed regarding the misleading of Parliament.

“We will engage with legal on Powers, Privileges and Immunities, where people mislead or lie to Parliament. We will engage with legal on what must be done,” Letsie added.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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