Fired minister Nkabane’s Seta panel existed in name only, MPs conclude

MPs battled on Tuesday, 22 July to understand controversial panel appointments who axed higher education minister Nobuhle Nkabane claimed assisted her in selecting the 21 chairpersons of the Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) boards.

The panellists said they neither sat in any meeting nor made appointments to the Seta boards. Her adviser, Asisipho Solani, is accused of coercing an official to confirm that the panel existed.

Nkabane was fired as minister of higher education and training by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, 21 July 2025. Nkabane’s deputy Buti Manamela was sworn in as the new minister alongside new deputy minister Nomsa Ncube-Dube.

Read more: Nkabane skips Seta scandal meeting as officials deny role in appointments

The panellists included education and training Deputy Director-General Rhulani Ngwenya, Chief of Staff Nelisiwe Semane, Seta Director Mabuza Ngubane, and Solani, the adviser to the ex-minister. 

Reading their letters into the record, Ngwenya, Semane and Ngubane denied involvement in appointing the 21 Seta chairpersons. Solani admitted that he was part of the nomination committee, but did not receive compensation beyond his regular salary.

Read more: Did the Seta panel exist? Nkabane under fire as senior officials deny role in appointments

Karabo Khakhau (DA) questioned Ngwenya – named as the secretary of the panel – about why she did not set up panel meetings with Terry Motau, who was named as its chairperson.

Ngwenya replied that “there was never a conclusion between the process I was embarking on with advocate Motau… The process was overtaken”.

Ngwenya told the committee that it was her job as secretary to set up meetings, but that she had never done so. Khakhau asked Solani whether he had intervened in any way in the appointment of Seta board chairpersons, which had included ANC cadres, but before Solani could respond, parliamentary higher education committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie told Khakhau that her time had expired. This led to Khakhau accusing Letsie of being a “bully”. 

Khakhau asked, “What are you hiding, Letsie? Why do you not want us to engage with these people honestly? You do not want the truth to come out about what exactly happened here… You are bothering me because you have something to hide.”

Solani’s alleged coercion

Letsie said he had received a letter from a Department of Higher Education official who said her job was in danger for refusing to allow her name to be added to the non-existent independent Seta panel. 

Letsie read from the letter: “I was approached by Mr Asisipho Solani, whom I worked with in the ministry. He approached me two days before the President requested a report from the minister (Nkabane); he assured me that my name would be protected, and… as a young mother, I was promised that the future of my children would be taken care of and that there would be a reward once the matter had died down… I refused for my name to be released, and I was threatened that I would lose my job.” 

Solani responded that the individual who wrote the letter was not an employee of the department as alleged in the letter. “The allegations are not true, and misleading,” said Letsie.

‘There was no panel’

Winding up the committee meeting, Letsie said it was clear there was no independent panel. “Maybe there was an intention to have a panel, but it was not implemented in a true sense… There was no need for the minister to say there was a panel.”

Nkabane, who was fired a day before she was set to appear before the committee,