EDTP SETA in Hot Water After Failing To Account for Missing R647 Million
PARLIAMENT, WESTERN CAPE—Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of Parliament Sihle Lonzi said the Education, Training and Development Practices (EDTP) Sector Education and Training Authority’s (SETA) failure to explain the disappearance of R648 million smacked of criminality. Other MPs also called out the financial discrepancy amid calls for an investigation and dissolution of the SETA’s financial division.
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TimesLIVE reported that the SETA appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education on 23 April 2026 after an audit by the Auditor General (AG) revealed that the money could not be accounted for. There was no paper trail to provide as evidence of these transactions. Furthermore, seven transactions of R42 million were made, which were also accounted for.
Sihle Lonzi and MPs slam SETA
When asked about the supporting documents for the transaction, Khawedzo Ngaledzani, a senior finance manager at the SETA, said that the documents were unavailable on their systems because of human error. Ngaledzani also explained how they picked up the error after the AG flagged it. Lonzi was not impressed by her responses, and neither were other MPs. Lonzi said that thieves were stealing from the SETA, which is dealing with criminality in this regard. He added that he was not persuaded by the ‘human error’ explanation.
The Democratic Alliance's Larabo Khakhau also weighed in. She slammed the SETA and said that its conduct breached the Public Finance Management Act. She pointed out that the writing is on the wall that the breaches constitute criminal offences. She called on Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela to disband the SETA’s financial division.
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The Committee's chairperson, Tebogo Letsie, called for a separate forensic investigation into the money disappearance. He gave the SETA until the end of Friday, 24 April, to submit the outstanding documents to the AG. SETAs have recently been under the microscope after the former Higher Education Minister, Nobuhle Nkabane, withdrew a list of board chairperson candidates for the SETA. Lonzi and other MPs flagged the list and slammed it for including members of the African National Congress linked to Nkabane.
Source: Briefly News
