Wayne Duvenage: “Compromised” Cyril’s “inconsistent” Cabinet sackings

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been slammed for the “unacceptable inconsistency” he shows in firing members of his Cabinet. In this interview with BizNews, Wayne Duvenage of OUTA says: “… you look at our President and you ask him: do you understand what you do to the trust in government?” Duvenage was commenting on the sacking of Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane over her handling of controversial politically-linked appointments to CETA boards. Duvenage points out that while the sacked minister is not corrupt, others accused of corruption like former Justice Minister Thembi Simelane - who was just moved to Human Settlements, is still in the Cabinet. Yet, The Democratic Alliance’s Andrew Whitfield was sacked as Deputy Trade Minister for failing in his efforts to get permission from the President to travel abroad. “So we have a compromised president with his political party members who actually do not want to see a highly effective criminal justice system. They don't, it's not in their favour.” Meanwhile, Duvenage warns that the new Higher Education Minister, Buti Manamela, is taking over “probably the most corrupt network in government in this country”..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.915)President Cyril Ramaphosa has caved into immense pressure to sack the Minister of Higher Education. A lot of that pressure came from Wayne Duvenage of OUTA. Wayne, was there any way out for the president this time? Wayne Duvenage (00:20.088)Yeah, hi Chris. I think a lot of the pressure actually came from inside parliament and the GNU and the political players. Firstly, I think we need to make it clear. We don't believe that the minister Nkabane, now no longer the minister, was corrupt. I think she fell, she became a victim of a situation that she was thrust into by what we believe a list of SETA board chair nominations that we believe was thrust into her hands by the Cadre Deployment Committee of All People there at the ANC. Because we have fortunately met with this minister at the beginning of the year, and she inherited a cesspool of corruption from Blade Nzimande quite frankly from a number of years that he'd been in that role. You know, we'd been interviewing a lot of whistleblowers over a number of years and they continue to roll out these interviews. And more and more as we dig and expose the corruption in the various CETAs and Higher Education, the more whistleblowers came forward. It is rotten, Chris, throughout. I've said it to the previous minister and I say it now to the Buti Manamela, the new minister. He's taken over probably the most corrupt network in government in this country. So it is rife. She was always going to be on an uphill battle to undo the networks and to fight them off, which is why she engaged with us, told us. She had an ideal opportunity because the boards needed to be changed by March. And the boards are the areas where oversight is exercised. And if you have strong chairpersons and strong boards, then you can tackle the errant CETAs. Those ones that have, especially about seven or eight of these 21 CETAs have got repeated Auditor General qualified audits, some of them with findings, and then just go into all the stuff that we're uncovering… Wayne Duvenage (02:38.378)…and will easily, those boards will easily be able to start undoing the rot. If you don't have strong board chairpersons and boards, then you'll have exactly what you've had in the past. People look away and these CETAs continue. So I think she was on the road to try and fix that. She had to pull back that list of 21 nominations, which was fraught with political connected people, family members of politicians. Absolutely unacceptable. She had the president's backing of pulling that list back. So we know it wasn't her list. And then from there on, it was downhill because she, I think, fell into the trap of not explaining herself, trying to hide the fact that this was an issue and misled Parliament. And that was the beginning of the end. And I think she was out of her depth. So, you know, OK, she has to go. We hope the new minister is going to not let up now and meet with us and deal with this issue because it's a serious issue. Chris Steyn (03:44.165)Wayne, do you think there was pressure on her from politicians whose family members were on that list and that she was literally panic driven to cover up? Wayne Duvenage (03:54.702)That's one possibility, Chris. There's a number of possibilities here. We don't know. We can speculate. You know, in our lead-up and discussions with her, we indicated that she would need to be quite strong on this. Because remember, inside the system, and we knew that, we saw a lot of signs of the pushback of the networks within the system. And she was under immense pressure. You know, I think..I think if she had known what she was stepping into, she probably wouldn't have accepted the position. So she's paid the ultimate price. She's been axed as a Minister. Nobody wants to have that legacy. So, I think to your point, whether she was deliberately set up, whether people manipulated, leaked the lists, who knows? But it just goes to show how deep the infighting is because you must understand there's a lot of money to be made in these CETAs. As we've seen, millions, in fact billions of rands have flowed out of the CETAs when it shouldn't have into the hands of connected networks. This is what has to be stopped. And I don't know whether Minister Manamela is going to be able to step up to that plate because he will be challenging networks that we believe, Blade Nzimande is responsible for allowing to set up. I mean, he hasn't once called out this incessant corruption that we've exposed. He's not once wanted to meet with us while he was minister and we pointed out a number of these things to him. He indicated he would meet with us, he never did. Then he indicated he would sue us, he never did. And we hope he does because then we have discovery in court and we just say it as it is. If you join the dots, it's very obvious what's going on there. And sadly, though, Chris, and this is the saddest thing and you'll see it in the interviews with whistleblowers and there more coming, their lives are decimated, their livelihoods. They feel threatened, they don't feel safe. Some of them have lost their houses and homes and families. It's horrible. Wayne Duvenage (06:11.97)To see how whistleblowers are treated or people that just get in the way of the corruption in these CETAs. And I'm talking about Insurance CETA, the Construction CETA, Services CETA, and a number of others which are coming forward. So it's just outrageous. Chris Steyn (06:29.617)I’ve spoken to two of your original three Service CETA people and the devastation to their lives is indescribable, absolutely indescribable - and what do they have to show for those sacrifices, Wayne? Wayne Duvenage (06:45.708)Yeah, you know, we are hoping we sincerely are hoping because the minute the the the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education did indicate as as has happened recently at SARS and other areas of government where ministers and people in positions of power have expressed their concerns and and realised that they need to compensate these whistleblowers. And this portfolio chairperson has indicated that that should happen. So our call on him is to say, OK, let's start this wheel now, not later, because every day these individuals are suffering. And as I said, one just couldn't hold on to a home and the bank repossessed, you know, just kick them out. This is so sad. So what they have to show for it, for their moral courage, for defending this country against this abuse of power is the worst thing, which is being unemployed, no income, shunned from family and friends. It's really, really shocking. And our appeal, I think, here, Chris, is to business out there. We need to find jobs for these individuals. We will vet them. They are good people. I think what happens often, Chris, is when whistleblowers go out and try and find a job, if they've got this whistleblower connotation tag, tag to them, it's like taboo, you know, it's a stay off. But these are not people that want to go into the corporate world. They come out of the public sector, very good people, by the way. They don't want to go into the corporate world and start whistleblowing inside the corporate world. These are people that want to put their heads down and work and they're qualified. And there's this fear, there's this unfounded fear by the corporate world to not employ them. And that's sad because I think they will add so much value to these organizations. So we've got to help them get jobs now. They've just done this country immense service, and they shouldn't be punished like this. Chris Steyn (08:51.427)I'm thinking about that one whistleblower you interviewed, Wayne, whose face was disguised, highly qualified woman, phenomenally intelligent and brilliant at what she does. Wayne Duvenage (09:05.036)Yeah. And just yesterday at Construction CETA, we put a quick message out yesterday evening, following an interview I'd done on Morning Live on the Sunday Times exposé of the CETA corruption, the HR manager was removed, just fired, letter given, no suspension while they formulate charges and have him go through a disciplinary process, nothing, just simplified, broke all the labour laws, just removed him with immediate effect. He needs to be able to explain himself. I think…the CEO at the Construction CETA just assumed that he had engaged with us on matters that we've been aware of for some time from various people inside the system that have been talking about how … just has hijacked the whole HR process, removes people, sidelines people, has changed the whole structure over time within the services department, puts his own people in. I mean, this is the modus operandi of people who abuse their positions of power like …has. So he assumes it's his HR manager and just removes him. So, you know, I can see the labour lawyers lining up to defend this individual. The sad thing is that you and I will pick up the costs, the legal costs that are going to unfold now. And I have no doubt that the HR manager will have to be reinstated, get his job back, be repaid, compensated, as will these other whistleblowers that cases are going to go to court. It's shocking..Read more:.BN Briefing: Nkabane axed, disconnected police network, no Rama-confidence vote? Jetsons meet Tesla.Chris Steyn (10:55.857)Wayne, I want to go back to these recent CETA board appointments that had to be revoked. In your opinion, which was the most controversial in terms of political links? Wayne Duvenage (11:08.302)Well, you know, I think we see the new deputy minister now that's been put into the position who was the previous Premier….You know, I've got to be careful not to speculate. The problem is, and I think the one obvious one was Gwede Mantashe's son. Our message to these ministers is just stay away from politicians, stay away from people who are politically connected in any way. What you need in these institutions are people who've got experience on governance, people who are not going to be politically tainted at all, people who are independent to come in and fulfill the role and the duties of these chairpersons, which is strong oversight, governance. We've seen how poorly administered these institutions are, and you need a good board. And this goes for all State-owned entities, but it seems to escape the requirements of these appointments in the past. So hopefully, Minister Manamela can fix this. All those boards need to be appointed shortly. We've nominated 13 good people. In fact, we had 15, two of them withdrawn. They just believe that the political heat is just too hot. And we were also hearing that some board members inside that recently appointed, because remember, these are the chairpersons that have been nominated. They're already board members that are put in place, but they are appointed, but they haven't started their duties. We already hear that some board members inside some of the CETAs are resigning because they can see what's coming and they just do not want to be part of this turmoil and the heat in the kitchen that's coming their way. But we urge board members, stand your ground, stand on these boards and make sure that you do your job, which is to ask the tough questions. By the way, Chris, not all these CETAs are tainted in this manner, but enough of them are to know that there's a network out there that is plundering. Chris Steyn (13:17.329)Now, Wayne, going back to the minister who has been sacked for misleading parliament, yet other ministers with corruption allegations hanging over their heads are not replaced. Your thoughts on that. Wayne Duvenage (13:29.922)Yeah, yeah, it's just such inconsistency, isn't it? Not for one minute defending Minister Nkabane for what transpired. But there you have Minister Simelani, who is the previous Justice Minister, who has got so much evidence against her and her involvement with VBS while she was the Polokwane mayor. And it's not just one or two incidences and all the evidence is there how she has misled the president and the public and benefited from transactions that she really ought not to have been involved in. And what does she get? Side-lined, not side-lined. You just, okay, we'll move you to another position. You're still the minister. You've got all the perks. Then we see Andrew Whitfield who tried his best to get the approval of the president to travel. Didn't quite get that right. Really not even close to the same league as the type of stuff that's happened yet. Somebody moved, just removed, gone, you know, out you go. And so you look at our President and you ask, you know, ask him, do you understand what you do to the trust in government? I mean, the Edelman Trust Barometer shows that South Africa has the lowest trust in its government, its people. This just makes matters worse. And now the minister, the president wants to have a National Dialogue. On what? What's he going to discuss with us? We need to fix the criminal justice system, which can be fixed, by the way. You just have to the political will. You have to implement all those factors that came out as on those recommendations. And yet nothing's done. So we have a compromised president with his political party members who actually do not want to see and highly efficient highly effective criminal justice system. They don't, it's not in their favour. And so you're going to, we're going to have to work harder civil society and as the public to put pressure on this president and his connected cronies to fix corruption in this country because at the rate he's going right now, we're losing faith in him every single day. Chris Steyn (15:42.126)Because if we're looking at who he fired from the cabinet in recent times. Those did not have allegations of corruption hanging over their heads, unlike those who do have serious allegations of corruption hanging over their heads, who's now on special leave and or sidelined to another department. Wayne Duvenage (16:01.464)Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the inconsistency is just unacceptable. So we live in interesting times every day. More is exposed. Chris, we've got a lot of work to do. We will not give up. We will not, you know, we will continue to uncover and unmask those who are involved in corruption in this country. And the list is long. It's never a dull day in the business of fighting corruption in this country. Chris Steyn (16:33.221)Thank you. That was Wayne Duvenage speaking to BizNews. I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Wayne. Wayne Duvenage (16:41.102)Thanks a lot, Chris. Take it easy. All the best.

Wayne Duvenage: “Compromised” Cyril’s “inconsistent” Cabinet sackings

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