Blade's Seta woes grow

The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, has been accused of dishing out plum leadership positions in the Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) to his allies in the trade unions in return for political support.

This after two of his close allies, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) president Senzeni Zokwana and former Popcru general secretary Abbey Witbooi, were made chairmen of big-budget Setas.

The appointment of Phindile Nzimande, fiancée of NUM general secretary Frans Baleni, as chairman of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta (Merseta) has further raised eyebrows.

But Phindile Nzimande, who is also the CEO of the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa), said she was insulted by the insinuation that her professional progress was dependent on other people.

Zokwana and Witbooi have also dismissed suggestions that they are being rewarded for loyalty to the minister.

Blade Nzimande's bold drive to reconfigure the Setas, which have billions of rands to train unskilled workers, suffered a serious setback two weeks ago when the Labour Court ruled that he had exceeded his powers in changing the governance structure of the Services Sector Education and Training Seta.

This was after Ivor Blumenthal launched an urgent court interdict to stop the minister from removing him as chairman of the billion-rand Seta.

Blumenthal was to be replaced by Western Cape ANC activist Sihle Moon, known to be close to acting higher education and training director-general Gwebs Qonde.

The ruling, against which the minister is appealing, could have major implications for the other Setas where new chairmen have been appointed.

Unhappiness over the appointments of new chairmen has filtered through to the unions, where Nzimande - who is general-secretary of the SACP - has been accused of not consulting adequately in the organised labour sector .

Nqaba Nqandela, the minister's chief of staff, said none of the Seta appointees were being rewarded for their closeness to the minister.