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MEDIA STATEMENT
The Construction Education Training Authority (CETA) takes note of a story in the Sunday Times (titled Minister Nobuhle Nkabane Seta woes deepen, 22 June 2025) in which CETA’s name is being dragged through the mud using regurgitated, false and malicious claims to which there are previous responses which the Sunday Times did not request or patently ignored.
The story, based on an opinion piece appearing elsewhere in the paper, then proceeds to make tenuous links between unrelated issues, conveniently ignoring facts to construct its narrative.
It is falsehood, a misrepresentation and misleading the public that there has been irregularities or corruption ignored at CETA. The CETA investigated all claims of irregularities to which it has acted in applying consequence management to various officials, including one being quoted by the ST.
What is noticeable is that most of these implicated officials have opted to go to the media and attack the CETA leadership and CEO at various platforms in an attempt to escape disciplinary action
CETA is currently applying a ruling by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) handed on the 27th of May 2025, which states that CETA can proceed with a disciplinary hearing against the employee. We doubt if the employee made mention of this fact to the Sunday Times.
The employee sought to halt disciplinary proceedings on the basis that some of the charges emanated from an alleged disclosure made under the Protected Disclosure Act of 2000, thereby disguising themselves as a whistleblower when they were not. The employee wanted all charges, including those not related to protected disclosure, to be dropped.
The employee faces serious charges, including the violation and breach of Supply Chain Management (SCM) policies which led to CETA incurring irregular expenditure, the violation of contract management policies, alleged leaking of CETA confidential information and bringing the CETA and the CEO name into disrepute, misrepresentation, fraud and forgery, including that of allegedly forging the CEO’s signature as well as the violation of CETA’s Code of Conduct and Ethics.
The disclosures in question were made in August 2019, three months after a forensic investigation report implicating the same official and others was issued to the CETA Board in May 2019.
The employee had concealed information about irregularities then afterwards claimed whistleblowing on what could have been brought to light years earlier. The official is at the centre of those implicated in the findings by the forensic report.
In its ruling, the CCMA has found that “…the disclosures in their entirety, given the timing in which they were made, were not made sincerely, honestly and in good faith and thus cannot be regarded as protected disclosures to be protected against occupational detriment. The employee must face all charges in the disciplinary hearing and provide her defences accordingly.”
CETA awaits the employee to present themselves to a hearing chaired by an independent chairperson to present her case.
The part of the story that CETA would like to reject with utter contempt and dismay is the repeated claims of tender irregularities and board nomination manipulations, both of which allegedly involve CETA CEO Malusi Shezi.
The most unfortunate part of the story is that the Sunday Times was selective in its request for commentary, enquiring only about nomination claims, and said nothing of the tender irregularities.
The tender irregularities allegation rests on assertions made by a CETA employee who is currently suspended and poses as a ‘whistleblower’.
Had the Sunday Times raised the employee’s name and their claims, CETA would have alerted them to the true facts of the employee’s case.
The Sunday Times proceeds to report that the employee reported her case to several institutions including the Presidency, the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training and the Public Protector.
The Sunday Times then proceeds to suggests that none of these institutions did anything about the alleged claims.
Had the Sunday Times contacted the Public Protector, instead of taking their source’s word, they would have been informed, as CETA was, that an investigation on the matter is ongoing.
On the matter of board nomination manipulation, CETA reiterates what it told the Sunday Times. The allegations against the CETA officials are false and malicious. SETA Boards are appointed by the Minister of Higher Education and Training In accordance with section 11(1) and (2) of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 with limited input for the SETAS or their CEOs.
The Department of Higher Education and Training has undertaken an investigation into the allegations of board manipulation at CETA and found no evidence of such wrongdoing.
The Minister had instructed the National Skills Authority (NSA) to undertake such; and all parties concerned were contacted and interviewed. The said employee quoted by ST is not a party into such a matter; and no need for investigators to engage her/him.
Save for this to confirm that the said employee and her cahoots are engaged in spreading lies and attacking the institutions of the State.
CETA notes that the ST failed to follow the Press Code, and did not afford sufficient time for responses, which suggest the ST already had written its story and had a clear agenda to smear and attack the CETA and the Minister.
The report on a vital matter involving a strategic Ministry is blemished by this unfortunate distortion.
It is on public record that the CETA has appeared to Parliamentary Committees including the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in February 2025, accompanied by the Minister at the same session to account on all the alleged matters. CETA submitted all requested documentation to SCOPA through the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).
The CETA also appeared twice at the Portfolio Commitee on Higher Education and Training in the last 12 months, accompanied by the DHET leadership and the representatives of the Minister on those occasions. All those are indicators of oversight played by the Ministry over the SETAs and matters they account on to Parliament.
All these facts were ignored in tarnishing the image of the SETAs at large when accountability is taking place and evidence at this CETA so far indicates that the recent allegations are not supported by credible evidence but mere speculation and smear campaign.
The matters alleged to have taken place in previous periods as covered in the Duja Reports, were already addressed by the institution; including the probity audits before all awarded tenders are concluded. The conclusions from probity audits in the past 24 months shows no instance of non-compliance.
The probity audit firms performing those assignments on each tender awarded are independent and objective, and are registered with the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA).
That is the highest level of assurance and conclusions about processes compliance with Section 217 of the Constitution, Section 51 of the PFMA and the related CETA policies one can rely on in this regard.
CETA would like to place its disappointment on the record and reserves its rights.
INSIDE EDUCATION