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Higher education & training minister Buti Manamela has ordered an investigation after the resignations in quick succession of the CEO and chief information officer of the media, information and communication technologies sector education and training authority (MICT Seta).Manamela ordered the investigation after the resignations led to urgent governance and business continuity challenges that require urgent attention.CEO Matome Madibana and chief information officer Moloti Nkune resigned on July 31 and June 30, respectively.To make matters worse, the entity established to generate, facilitate and accelerate the processes of quality skills development at all levels in advertising, film, electronics, IT and telecoms was late in filing its sector skills and annual performance plans.The Seta also submitted its annual financial statements without the chair’s signature, leading to the portfolio committee on higher education & training writing to the Seta to demand an explanation.The entity has now resolved to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of Madibana and Nkune’s resignations and the broader governance lapses.“Given the governance and institutional implications of the resignations and the governance challenges, MICT Seta intends to appoint a suitably qualified service provider to conduct an independent investigation to establish factors contributing to recent resignations and governance challenges and make recommendations on how the problems can be resolved,” the entity said in its request for proposals.The scope of work the external investigators are expected to cover suggests they will be given latitude to turn the organisation on its head to get to the root cause of its problems.The investigators will be expected to conduct a detailed analysis of the organisational environment at the top/senior management level and provide observations/findings on whether the MICT Seta is an employer of choice where senior managers would prefer to work. The request for proposal lists the objectives of the investigation as follows:Determine primary factors driving the resignation of senior managers and whether they relate to leadership, culture, remuneration, workload, governance or external factors.Determine the primary factors leading to the governance challenges that led to the portfolio committee on higher education & training and the minister intervening. Identify risks associated with continued resignations. Recommendations to resolve the governance lapses and retain managers and stabilise leadership.The MICT Seta-initiated investigation comes soon after Manamela appointed the National Skills Authority to conduct a rapid governance assessment at the Seta and advise on terms of its governance function under the Skills Development Act.“The referral forms part of the department’s broader programme to strengthen governance, accountability and institutional effectiveness across the sector education and training authorities as government advances the implementation of the skills revolution,” the department said.“The objective is to ensure that every Seta remains focused on its core mandate of developing the skills required for inclusive economic growth, industrialisation and employment creation.”South Africa’s Setas have largely failed to live up to expectations in ensuring that workplace training is fit for purpose. This is despite taxpayers funding them to the tune of more than R20bn since their establishment.The Setas are a government intervention that seeks to address workplace training needs while reducing the cost of training entry-level employees in their sectors through a state-subsidised and incentivised programme. President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year said the Seta model is not working and needs to change. Manamela has put several Setas under administration: the construction education and training authority, the services Seta and the local government Seta.Business Times understands that the MICT Seta is set to also be placed under administration, depending on the outcome of the assessment by the National Skills Authority.Business Times
