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Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority's decline highlights systemic failures in skills development sector

Wayne Duvenage
By Wayne Duvenage
7 Apr 2025
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The Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority’s governance has deteriorated, oversight mechanisms have weakened, and its leadership appears determined to dodge transparency at every turn. Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s engagement with this institution paints a worrying picture of obfuscation and mismanagement, one which the minister of Higher Education can no longer ignore.

South Africa’s Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) were created with the noble intention of building a skilled and capable workforce, particularly for youth entering a challenging job market. Yet over the past decade, too many Setas have become mired in maladministration, opaque practices and outright incompetence. Few examples illustrate this systemic decay better than the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (Inseta).

Once considered one of the better-performing Setas, Inseta’s trajectory has taken a nosedive over the past five years, since Gugu Mkhize was given the reins as it’s CEO, bolstered by its Chairperson Sihle Ngubane, who left in 2024 to become an MP of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party. Accordingly, Inseta’s governance has deteriorated, oversight mechanisms have weakened, and its leadership appears determined to dodge transparency at every turn. Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (Outa) engagement with this institution paints a worrying picture of obfuscation and mismanagement, one which the Minister of Higher Education – Nobuhle Nkabane — can no longer ignore.

Take, for instance, Inseta’s decision to spend more than R14-million on a new Enterprise Resource Planning system from a company called QI Solutions. Having followed similar tender awards by other Setas to QI Solutions, Outa submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act request in early 2024 to understand the basis of this procurement decision. Mkhize publicly claimed the information was provided to Outa, however, that is patently false. More than a year later this information is still outstanding, with the matter now escalated to the Information Regulator due to Inseta’s failure to comply with a lawful Promotion of Access to Information Act request.

Stonewalled


More recently, Outa submitted three additional Promotion of Access to Information Act requests — all stonewalled to date — pertaining to equally troubling decisions. The first involves Inseta’s cancellation in 2022 of its office lease agreement, which still had about two-and-a-half years of its five-year period to run, on the back of its own internal investigation which the court found to be irrational. This reckless decision has triggered a legal claim of about R15-million by their past landlords, for which the high court has ruled in their favour, potentially wasting public funds that were meant for skills development, not legal battles.

The second request relates to a R14-million contract awarded to a one-director company based in Brits, with no clear track record in infrastructure logistics or office relocation. This small firm was inexplicably entrusted with the task of moving and fitting Inseta’s new office infrastructure a mere 10km away, at significant cost and without public clarity or justification. 

The third request involves a grossly excessive R18-million contract awarded to HV Holdings for a Data clean-up of historical learner records and achievements over 12 months — an objective that remains shrouded in mystery, with no explanation of scope, deliverables, or competitive process. This “cleanup” should have addressed the significant number of “ghost learners” in the system, along with the non-issuance of certificates to those learners who had qualified but not received proof thereof, giving rise to lost job opportunities and advancement of their livelihoods.

Inseta’s arrogance doesn’t end with secrecy around tenders. Their appalling treatment of a well-respected training provider to the insurance and finance industry — the Graduate Institute for Financial Sciences — gave rise to the unlawful de-accreditation of Graduate Institute for Financial Sciences as per a high court ruling. This conduct has now given rise to a significant business damages claim against Inseta by Graduate Institute for Financial Sciences — reportedly in the region of a third of its annual revenue.

Qualified audits


Just when you thought enough wrongdoing has been exposed, one cannot dismiss Inseta’s qualified audits with material irregularities for the past three years, by the Auditor-General of South Africa.

When Outa attempted to raise these concerns at Inseta’s AGM in November 2024, its leadership refused to entertain questions. Despite several formal requests to meet with Inseta’s board, they have buried their collective heads in the sand, neglecting the important oversight role and fiduciary duties they are supposed to exercise on such matters.

When leadership structures actively evade scrutiny, public trust is eroded. Inseta is not an isolated case. We’ve seen similar dysfunction in the Construction Seta, Services Seta, Mictseta, W&RSeta and others. Repeated qualified audits from the Auditor-General, whistleblower complaints, and mounting financial mismanagement all point to a network of entities where accountability has all but collapsed.

The time for half-measures to address myriad dubious decisions, incompetence and corruption at various Setas is over. Encouragingly, one sees the beginning of a refreshing attitude by Minister Nkabane, who recently made quality appointments of a new Chairperson (Dr Karen Stander), Board and CEO (Mr Waseemm Carrim) at the National Student Finance Aid Scheme. By all accounts, these appointees appear to be fit for the role of addressing what can only be described as a cesspool of maladministration and corrupt networks that have infiltrated the National Student Finance Aid Scheme over the past number of years.

The minister of Higher Education would be wise to use her executive authority to conduct sweeping changes and terminate the entire board of Inseta, along with not renewing the contract of its CEO and other senior managers implicated in improper conduct. The same should be applied to around half of the Setas where similar failures have been exposed. The rebuilding of public confidence in these institutions must begin with new, ethical, and competent leadership that puts skills development and the saving of state funds at the centre of its mandate.  

Excellent opportunity


Fortunately, the current board and accounting authority’s contracts of the Setas are up for renewal, making this an excellent opportunity for the minister to sweep clean and introduce new leadership with excellent track records and boards that have the moral courage to exercise meaningful oversight.

South Africa’s youth cannot afford another five years of failure at the hands of compromised institutions. The time to clean house within Higher Education’s Seta environment is now. This is also the time to reevaluate the return on investment of the Skills Development Levies, with the sum of roughly R16-billion per annum allocated to the collective 21 Setas. DM

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