NSFAS administrator gets grilled by committee over allegations of irregular appointments

On Friday Randall Carolissen, NSFAS’ administrator told Parliament’s higher education committee that he was there to clear his name after Nehawu and former and current NSFAS employees made allegations of irregular appointments under his leadership, which Carolissen denied.

Instead Carolissen told the committee that the allegations by Nehawu and its members had tarnished his reputation and that he wanted to “restore his reputation” by setting the record straight. 

In a previous meeting last month, Nehawu alleged that Carolissen was hiring unqualified associates. 

Carolissen explained this by telling the committee that when he started working at NSFAS in 2018 there was a lack of technical expertise, hence he headhunted people.

Carolissen said that he often got CVs from people which he would then send to the human resources (HR) department but he “didn’t instruct for them to be appointed,” he said. 

But Vuyokazi Dwane, who was in the human resources department, told the committee that she left NSFAS because NSFAS had entered “the age of predetermined recruitment outcomes”. 

Dwane told the committee that “job adverts would be referred to as so-and-so’s job” before candidate’s had got the jobs. Dwane said that on one occasion Carolissen asked her “in front of a prospective candidate how far she was with putting out the job advert for the candidate’s job,” said Dwane. 

A hugely contested appointment was Sibongile Mncwabe’s appointment as the stakeholder liaison adviser. Nehawu claimed that when Carolissen discussed the creation of the job post with Blade Nzimande, the minister of higher education, Mncwabe was present. 

Carolissen denied this and said that he merely “sought concurrence from the minister” at that meeting and that Mncwabe was present because she was Nzimande’s personal assistant at the time.

Philemon Mapulane, the chairperson of the committee, asked Carolissen how he didn’t see anything wrong with Mncwabe being present at a meeting discussing a job she was going to apply for. 

Carolissen insisted that there was nothing wrong with Mncwabe’s presence at the meeting. 

Carolissen was also accused by Nehawu of irregularly appointing his friend, Willem Basson. Carolissen told the committee that he knew Basson because they went to the same school, but they were never friends. “In 2012 I bumped into him at an airport, we chatted and that was it,” said Carolissen.

“Parliament was unhappy with our Annual Performance Plan (APP) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which I undertook to fix. I then asked Basson to help us to resolve it...because he’s an expert in APP and KPI,” said Carolissen. 

According to Nehawu, Basson’s current role is that of Strategy and APP Specialist, a position that does not exist in the public sector.  

Mapulane then asked Carolissen about a Facebook screenshot which was submitted to the committee by Nehawu as proof that Basson and Carolissen were friends. In the Facebook post, Basson describes Carolissen as a “great confidant, friend and homeboy”.

“In 2012 we chatted [at the airport] and then we became friends...there’s no reason for me to hide that I regard him highly,” said Carolissen.

Carolissen maintained that Basson was brought in because he had the skills that the organisation needed. But another employee who works in planning and monitoring at NSFAS disputed this and said that Basson didn’t have the skills to do what he was brought in to do. “Basson has a background in policing, he doesn’t have an understanding of education,” she told the committee.

Someone else who was hired who is alleged to have a relationship with Carolissen is Taryn Fortune, who allegedly worked with Carolissen’s wife elsewhere.

But Carolissen said it wasn’t true that Fortune had previously worked with his wife, “I’m not sure where that narrative comes from but it’s not true that [Fortune] worked with my wife,” said Carolissen. 

Marlene Bossett, who is in the HR department, disputed this and said that Fortune listed Carolissen’s wife as her line manager at her previous job and that Carolissen’s wife was listed as a reference on her CV.

After the eight-hour meeting, MPs expressed their shock at what Mapulane described as “a horror movie”.

Mapulane also noted that no job advertisements were put out for the jobs that Carolissen’s associates occupied. 

Jane Mananiso, an ANC MP, said that she was worried when Carolissen mentioned receiving CV’s and passing them on to HR, “to my surprise every person he gets a CV from gets appointed,” said Mananiso.

Nehawu has called for Carolissen to be removed. Carolissen’s term which was supposed to end in August 2019 was extended and it ends in December. Nehawu has also called for an independent forensic investigation to be conducted.

DA MP Baxolile Nodada and the ANC’s Tebogo Letsie suggested that the committee launch an inquiry in order to get to the bottom of what was happening at the organisation. DM