DA lays criminal charges against Nkabane over ‘lies' to Parliament in Seta scandal

Daily Maverick

6 days ago

The Democratic Alliance has laid criminal charges against Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane after she misled the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education over the appointments of the chairperson of the Seta boards and regarding her independent panel.
Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane has been under fire for appointing ANC politicians as chairs of 21 Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) boards, which were withdrawn after cries of corruption, and for misleading Parliament about the process of appointing the chairpersons. She claimed an independent panel led by Advocate Terry Motau advised her to make the appointments — yet Motau denies chairing it, and most of the other panellists were from her department.
This has now led to the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the DA, Helen Zille; DA Deputy Chief Whip, Baxolile Nodada MP; and DA National Spokesperson and member of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Karabo Khakhau MP, opening a criminal case against Nkabane for misleading Parliament over these issues.
The DA opened the case at Cape Town Central Police Station on Tuesday morning, 1 July 2025, before Nkabane's budget speech at the National Council of Provinces later. The DA made it clear that it wanted Nkabane to account for 'lying' in Parliament over her conduct involving the Setas and the independent panel. The charges include fraud and statutory offence under section 26 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislature Act 4 of 2004.
Section 26 of the act states that members guilty of contempt (e.g. lying to Parliament, non-compliance with procedures) face sanction — including fines, suspension, removal from positions, or referral to the National Prosecuting Authority.
'This was a blatant lie to Parliament and a misleading of Parliament. Now that has been held in the past to be fraud, and fraud and lying to Parliament are two criminal contraventions. They are criminal contraventions; they are not just indiscretions or lack of consideration or perhaps disrespect, as some people believe has been shown to President (Cyril) Ramaphosa by our colleague Andrew Whitfield. What has been done by Minister Nkabane is fraud and misleading Parliament, both of which are criminal contraventions. We obviously can't let that go,' said Zille.
Zille laid out that ministers had been removed from Parliament for lying to it, including Dr Connie Mulder who resigned from Parliament in January 1979 after being at the centre of the 'Muldergate' or Information Scandal. Another minister who was referenced is Tony Yengeni, who resigned from Parliament after receiving a four-year sentence for defrauding it.
'Even under Thabo Mbeki and others, lying to Parliament was not tolerated, and it should not be tolerated now,' added Zille.
Last week, Ramaphosa dismissed Andrew Whitfield from his position as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry on Wednesday, 25 June. Whitfield's removal, it later emerged, was apparently due to an 'unauthorised' trip he took to the US for the DA in February this year, Victoria O'Regan reported.
Opposing the budget vote
The DA has now intensified the call to also remove Nkabane for her conduct. Khakhau, who laid the charges and revealed that ANC politicians had been appointed as chairpersons of the Setas, said that if Ramaphosa did not want to act against corruption within his own Cabinet, the DA would do what it must to make sure that people were brought to book.
'The National Student Financial Aid Scheme is still a mess, student accommodation is still a mess, allowances are still a mess… And therefore, she also hasn't dealt with defunded students. We have a 100% firm view as the DA that not only does she deserve to be charged, but she also does not deserve the power and the delegation to use the state's money, and that is why we will not be voting in favour of her budget,' said Khakhau.
'While the ethics committee and the Public Protector can find her guilty, the police must jail her. That's why we're here.'
During a press conference on 28 June 2025, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the DA would oppose the budget votes of 'corruption-accused ANC ministers' — including Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane and Nkabane.
Nkabane is set to table her department's budget vote speech today at Parliament and again on Thursday. Zille told the media outside the police station that the DA remained firm that they would oppose the budget votes.
'We will oppose her budget vote. When we used to be in opposition, we used to often oppose budget votes to express our grave dissatisfaction with the performance of the minister. Just because we are now in the Government of National Unity does not imply that we must accept this kind of blatant infringement of the law… We are going to be there in Parliament explaining what an outrageous defiance of the law the minister has put up here and why, under those circumstances, it is impossible for us to support her budget vote,' said Zille.
Other cases the DA has filed against Nkabane include a supplementary ethics complaint against her after it learnt that Motau had written to Nkabane claiming he had nothing to do with the Seta appointments process. The DA also reported Nkabane to the Public Protector for investigation into the serious breach of the Executive Members' Ethics Code over numerous counts of misleading Parliament.