It was unacceptable that, despite South Africa’s skills shortage, training bodies had failed to spend the R6-billion allocated to them over the past two years, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) said on Friday.
It recently emerged that the Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) had failed to spend nearly half of the R6-billion allocated to them during the past two years.
The 25 Setas, established by the Skills Development Act in 2000, receive an annual budget of R3-billion. However, R2,8-billion accumulated over the past two years has not been spent.
UDM labour spokesperson Jakes Maseka said in a statement it was clear the managers of the Setas had failed in their duties and should resign.
He said Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana should intervene in the matter.
”It will be too late to wait until Parliament approves amendments to the Skills Development Act,” he said.
The proposed amendments would give Mdladlana more intervention powers into the bodies. It would also allow the underspending to be corrected. The amendments were presented to the National Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) last week. It is expected to approve the changes next week. It is unclear which Seta’s had underspent on their budgets. – Sapa