SETA CEO suspended ‘ allegedly for blowing the whistle on board
In a letter to the Minister of Labour asking for his intervention, a copy of which is in Health-e’s possession, suspended CEO Lerole David Mametja claims that the HWSETA board is ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘chaotic’ and that members have a ‘perverse incentive’ to hold many meetings as they get paid per meeting.
‘The HWSETA Board (of 24 members) has planned to meet six times this year, while executive committee (with 10 members) will meet 12 times (same as senior management will) this year,’ writes Mametja.
‘Additionally, there are seven other committees that will meet at least four times this year. This does not even include the so-called special meetings that get called at the slightest excuse possible, sometimes with no input from the CEO regarding the need for them.’
Already, the board and exco have met more than 10 times since January. According to the HWSETA constitution, the CEO needs to be involved in convening all meetings, yet Mametja has not been told of decisions taken at these meetings and does not yet know the content of the ‘gross misconduct’ for which he has been suspended.
Mametja says that, before he was appointed as CEO, board chairperson Thea Cronje was seconded to the SETA as acting CEO.
Between August and December last year, Mametja alleges that Cronje’s organisation, Ampath, was paid R462 000 in addition to which, Cronje was allegedly also paid ‘at least R40 000 a month’ plus allowances.
Cronje receives a R1 100 monthly cellphone allowance while ordinary board members get a R550 allowance ‘ the same that Mametja and executive managers receive respectively.
‘Does this arrangement mean the intensity of cellphone communication by the chairperson and board members is equivalent to that of full-time employees in the positions of CEO and executive manager? If that is the case, there is definitely something horribly wrong,’ writes Mametja.
‘Worse, the Board has made a decision that all the 10 members serving on its executive committee should be entitled to HWSETA-sponsored IT resources, including laptops and 3 G Cards (or any equivalent arrangement) despite my diplomatic caution against this blanket self enrichment provision.’
Mametja says that he was the sixth CEO to have been appointed since the HWSETA was set up in 2001.
‘I am informed that the exit of most (if not all) of my predecessors was preceded by acrimony, badly handled by the Board, leading to not insignificant financial settlements,’ says Mametja.
Dr Roger Govender, who was CEO from February 2003 to September 2006, says that he left the HWSETA ‘by mutual agreement’ with the board.
While reluctant to comment publicly on the internal workings of the HWSETA, Govender said that the board did ‘get involved in operational issues’ and that the large number of meetings held by the board posed ‘financial challenges for the SETA’.
Cronje said she was unable to comment on the allegations contained in Mametja’s letter as this was an ‘internal matter’.
The labour department’s Lindiwe Gwebu-Gqada, head of SETA performance management, confirmed that Mametja had contacted her about his suspension and that she had referred him to the labour minister. The minister is out of the country at present.
The HWSETA has a budget of over R146-million for the current financial year.
The SETAs are statutory public entities that are largely funded by the skills levy imposed on employers. They are supposed to develop and implement sector skills plans, including starting learnerships and approving employers’ workplace skills.
However, the Treasury raised serious concerns about the maladministration of SETAs as early as 2003. Irregularities have been uncovered in at least six SETAs over the past four years including the Tourism and Hospitality, Transport, Secondary Agriculture, Construction, Mining, Forest Industries and the Manufacturing and Engineering SETAs.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana recently revealed that 22 of the 23 SETAs had invested their money instead of running skills training. The Transport SETA had invested R245-million with the now-bankrupt Fidentia.
The labour department said recently that SETAs’ ‘financial activities are facing severe scrutiny, with government considering some of the most drastic measures to oversee their current investment arrangements’.
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