Ramaphosa fires Nkabane and appoints Buti Manamela as minister – SABC News
President Cyril Ramaphosa has fired embattled Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr. Nobuhle Nkabane and replaced her with her deputy, Buti Manamela. The Presidency announced this in a statement released on Monday afternoon.
Nkabane has recently been in the news for wrong reasons – the latest being her failure before parliament last Friday, arguing she had other commitments.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training has since rejected the apology that she submitted.
The committee had asked Nkabane to appear before it to account for the debacle surrounding the appointment of chairpersons of the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) boards.
She took flak last month after it emerged that some of the board chairpersons were said to be politically connected with others being officials of her department.
She argued on Friday that she could not cancel her commitments to appear in Parliament.
“After the cancellation of my trip due to not getting authorisation from the president, I made other commitments to attend a GBVF programme. I don’t want to say I was or wasn’t supposed to, but I did extend my apology to parliament, letting them know that I have already made other commitments,” she argued.
Her appearance in parliemant was rescheduled to Tuesday, and it is not clear at this stage if she will still be appearing following her removal as minister.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has also appointed Dr Nomusa Dube-Ncube as Manamela’s desputy.
“Dr Dube’s long government leadership experience includes serving as MEC for Coopertaive Government and Traditional affairs and Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal,” reads the statement in part.
PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA APPOINTS NEW MINISTER AND DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
President Cyril Ramaphosa has in terms of Section 91 (2) appointed Mr. Buti Kgwaridi Manamela, Minister of Higher Education and Training. Mr. Manamela was until this appointment…
— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) July 21, 2025
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