Africa-Press – South-Africa. EFF leader Julius Malema has advised former higher education minister Nobuhle Nkabane to go back to the drawing board and work on her conduct in parliament.
Nkabane was fired after being embroiled in the controversial appointment of the Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) board chairpersons. She was accused of misleading parliament over the “independent panel” she claimed had approved politically connected individuals to chair the 21 Seta boards to benefit ANC allies.
She found herself in hot water again when she appeared to be chewing gum during a portfolio committee meeting in parliament and refused to answer questions about the handling of the botched Seta board appointments.
Malema said Nkabane has a chance to get back on her feet if she stops chewing gum.
“It’s so painful,” Malema said during a briefing in Cape Town on Thursday.
“She’s so young. She has a chance to come back. I’ve seen people be demoted politically, then work on themselves and come back.
“The first thing she must do is stop chewing gum in a meeting. She was doing it yesterday in parliament.”
Malema urged Nkabane to be open to learning and accept she doesn’t know everything.
“The second thing she must do is be humble and know she doesn’t know, and be prepared to be guided and advised by proper people. Only a person who doesn’t know how parliament works would have advised her to do the things she did.”
In the list of the “independent panel” Nkabane falsely claimed legal expert advocate Terry Motau was part of it. She later apologised, saying it was a misunderstanding.
“You made a terrible mistake. You lied about people, including Motau. Motau comes and says, ‘Who, me? I’ve never done that’.” Malema said.
Nkabane recently snubbed the higher education parliamentary committee meeting to instead attend the annual national student leadership induction programme at the Buffalo City TVET college. She was expected to appear to clarify the Seta board controversy after more panelists denied participating in appointing the board.
“She gets a second chance to go to a committee to present herself in a different way and acknowledge her mistakes, but she doesn’t. She leaves the committee and goes to a gender-based violence programme at a TVET college when TVET colleges are the responsibility of a deputy minister
“Someone from the streets is misleading her. She’s listening to someone who has no idea what we’re dealing with,” Malema said.
“There are certain things you don’t do in parliament and she should have known that. You don’t respond to the chairperson who’s from the same party in the manner she did. You should know ‘if anything my protection will come from here’. Google it That was childish. Extremely girlish. She was not ready to be a minister. It’s not too late. She must go back to the branch, learn and come back.”
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