Higher Education Minister Nkabane defends her budget against party criticism

Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane has lashed out at political parties that rejected the 2025/26 budget for her department in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday.

Nkabane accused the parties of being anti-transformation, misogynistic, and doing a disservice to South Africans.

“It is a pity and unfortunate that today we are witnessing some of the honourable members not actually accepting and adopting this budget vote. Those who are actually rejecting the budget are rejecting the transformation of the post-school education and training sector in South Africa,” she said.

“They are not rejecting the budget of Nobuhle Nkabane. This is not the budget of Nobuhle Nkabane and it is the budget of the people of South Africa.”

This was after the DA led the charge in rejecting the budget during a debate in the NCOP following the laying of criminal charges against her for allegedly misleading Parliament on the “independent panel” for Sector and Education Training Authorities (SETA) board chairpersons.

The second biggest party had threatened not to vote in favour of budgets of departments that were led by “compromised and corrupt ANC ministers and deputy ministers”, whom President Cyril Ramaphosa did not remove from the Cabinet.

DA MP Jean Adriaanse said it was time for Ramaphosa to fire Nkabane and clean out the ANC's criminal network at the heart of government.

“The DA will not allow Parliament to be treated with contempt, and we will not tolerate corruption disguised as governance,” Adriaanse said.

He also said Nkabane brazenly appointed her comrades to SETA boards in an act of blatant cadre deployment intended to serve political interests rather than the public good.

“When this list was leaked, she swiftly revoked these appointments, attempting to cover her tracks. But her deception did not go unnoticed. The minister’s refusal to take responsibility was equally brazen — she shifted blame onto an ‘independent’ appointment panel, refusing to disclose its members. Only under pressure did she reveal some names, but she concealed at least one.”

Adriaanse said the panel she named was not independent at all.

“It was littered with cadres, proving she lied to Parliament. To make matters worse, she named Adv Terry Motau as the panel chair, only for him to publicly dispute her claim, further exposing her dishonesty. This scandal is not isolated. It underscores a pattern of corruption and reckless governance that must be rooted out. The minister’s actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for honesty, transparency, and accountability,” he added.

Freedom Front Plus MP Tammy Breedt said Nkabane’s controversial decision to appoint politically connected people to chair the boards of SETAs was not the smartest move.

“We must do what is right for the country as a whole, not just what is good for the ANC and the political elite they serve,” Breedt said.

She charged that the truth was that decades of ANC corruption and cadre deployment have crippled even some of the most basic skills development programmes.

“SETAs are no exception. We learned from an Auditor-General’s report in 2022 that over R2.5 billion was lost to non-existent or ghost skills development projects and institutions that have never existed. Recently, it was reported that NSFAS spent more than R1.3 billion on four IT companies for an online portal for student accommodation and later disbursed payments to companies that were not accredited financial service providers,” Breedt said.

MK Party’s Sibongiseni Majola said they too did not support the budget because “it is not pro-poor orientated”.

EFF’s Laetitia Arries said they rejected the budget because Nkabane, like her colleagues, was not another example of a failure in leadership the country was being subject to.

“You have failed to lead the nation to the realisation of adequate higher education. You have failed to respond to the concerns raised by students across campuses in all provinces,” Arries said.

She also said Nkabane failed to account for the cadre deployment, and corruption has become the defining feature of all ANC relationships with public institutions.

“You have failed to account for appointments that are glaring examples of political patronage, where state institutions intended to empower youth and workers, are turning to ANC deployment zones for local cadres and family members of the ruling elite,” Arries added.

In her response, Nkabane claimed to be a victim of the attacks for being a woman leading the department pursuing the transformation agenda.

“When you are against transformation, it irritates a lot when you see a young woman leading such a huge ministry in your presence. It is misogynistic,” she said.

“I understand it. I know where it is coming from, and worse, when it is a black woman, it becomes irritation,” she said.

She noted that the EFF raised progressive proposals in the debate but its lack of support to the budget was disservice to the South Africans.

“The sad part of it is that now they are not supporting the budget. My question, I am asking myself, is how we are going to address those issues that have been raised.”

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za