There was never a SETA Selection and Evaluation Panel. Nkabane lied

The weekend’s portfolio committee meeting, which Minister Nobuhle Nkabane bunked out of, heard staggering new details about the cover-up of brazen ANC cadre deployment.

The evil system of ANC cadre deployment is a web of corruption.

There was never an “independent panel” which made the SETA board appointments - as with all ANC cadre deployment corruption, it was done behind closed doors by the ANC and its handlers, one being Luvo Makasi.

The son of the ANC Chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, a former ANC KZN Premier, former ANC KZN MECs, and ANC office bearers currently serving in internal structures, were not appointed to these lucrative Board jobs by luck or accident. Their appointments were engineered.

It is now on record that four out of five named persons have so far denied being on Nkabane’s “independent panel” - only one named person remains to testify.

The committee testimony by witnesses, including Advocate Terry Motau, confirmed the conclusion from at least four out of the five people who Nkabane declared to Parliament served on this panel, that the panel did not exist. Nkabane lied.

The bombshell revelation in the past 24 hours is that the names and applications for persons competing to serve on the SETA Boards were given directly to the Minister personally, in January 2025 (on her request) and not to the panel. This is contrary to Nkabane's claim to Parliament on 30 May that she didn't see the names until after "the panel" advised her.

Nkabane only created the “independent panel” in March 2025, which we deduce from the “appointment letters” for “panel members” that she submitted to Parliament.

Nkabane had these applications for a full two months before she sent appointment letters to "the panel".

Two letters have been supplied to Parliament which show her appointing two different people as “independent panel” Chairpersons. One, Mabuza Ngubane as Chairperson on the 7th of March, and another, Adv Terry Motau as Chairperson on the 15th of March.

Since then, both Motau & Ngubane have denied this, and Nkabane has admitted to Terry Motau that she indeed did not appoint him.

These revelations are staggering:

• Nkabane & the ANC had the CVs and applications for two months before she started her “independent panel” scheme,
• She attempted to appoint two different persons as “Chairperson” - both of whom have testified to not having played any role in "the panel" and
• Now, at least four out of five persons on the “independent panel” deny ever serving on the panel.

With each passing day, Nkabane’s ANC cadre deployment corruption scheme grows more and more brazen.

The DA’s demand to Luthuli House by way of a PAIA application for information on the Party’s role in Nkabane’s cadre deployment is yet to be answered. The DA will be holding Luthuli House to the legal timelines of this.

The silence and inaction from President Ramaphosa show that an ANC party-wide cover-up may be underway, and the DA will not rest until full accountability follows.

 Karabo Khakhau MP - DA National Spokesperson