Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela is set to appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee in three weeks to explain the appointment of three Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) administrators.

This comes in the wake of DA MP Karabo Khakhau asking House Chairperson Cedric Frolick to intervene after she claimed Higher Education Portfolio Committee Chairperson Tebogo Letsie was “not acting with urgency in holding Minister Buti Manamela to account”.

Frolick told Khakhau that the matter had been discussed with Letsie.

“A committee application to meet with the minister on September 19, 2025, is approved,” he said in a letter dated August 28.

Khakhau welcomed Frolick’s intervention for overriding Letsie, whom she claimed was trying to stifle accountability and the democratic function of Parliament by refusing to call Manamela to account for his “new cadre deployment scandal”.

“Manamela’s appointment of ANC cadres implicated in forensic reports that detail acts of fraud, corruption, and the mismanagement of public funds, as SETA ‘administrators’ is a new national scandal. Holding him accountable for this decision is not premature at all; it is high time,” she said.

In response, Letsie took to social media, Facebook, to laugh off at Khakhau after she posted that Frolick approved “our call for Manamela to appear in Parliament to explain his SETA administrators”.

“Chair of chairs didn’t approve your call! He approved the application that was done by the committee chair after seeking answers from the minister, which never came,” he said.

“You know you can’t apply for any meeting with the chair of chairs. Facts over populism any day, thank you,” Letsie wrote.

Khakhau had initially asked Letsie last week to convene a portfolio committee meeting where Manamela was to explain the placement of three SETAs under administration, and the appointment of Lehlogonolo Masoga, Oupa Nkoane, and Zukile Mvalo as administrators for Services SETA, CETA, and Local Government SETA, respectively.

However, Letsie said it was premature to schedule a meeting as he had written to Manamela requesting detailed reasons for placing the three SETAS under administration.

“The third term is also comprised of three weeks, and one week is already taken by the committee strategic planning workshop, and the remaining two weeks have agenda items,” he said when he declined Khakhau’s request.

This prompted Khakhau to complain to Frolick that Letsie’s request for reasons from Manamela did not nullify her request for a meeting with the minister.

Earlier this week, Letsie indicated that Manamela notified him on Saturday that he had requested the Public Service Commission to vet the administrators, and stated that he has requested Frolick to authorise a meeting for September 12.

On Friday, Khakhau said Letsie wrongly called the DA’s request for Manamela to come to Parliament to account as “premature”.

“Manamela must explain to Parliament what justifies the appointments of Mr Nkoane, Mr Masoga, and Mr Mvalo,” she said.

Khakhau also said Nkoane reportedly had not received any communication of his appointment as “administrator” of the CETA before it was publicly announced.

“If the revelations about Nkoane are true, they would constitute a procedural irregularity in his appointment and would, at worst, constitute maladministration by Minister Manamela. This must be probed by the committee,” she said.

“To get to the truth, the DA has also requested that Nkoane appear before Parliament to test these claims. Nkoane must appear and give his version under oath in Parliament too,” Khakhau said.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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