Cape Town - Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Higher Education has called on the National Skills Fund (NSF) not to spend millions of rands funding service providers who give youth worthless short-term course certificates which don't help them find jobs.
NSF chief director Mvuyisi Macikama faced the committee in Parliament today, outlining their plan to address youth unemployment and provincial allocations for 2011.
The NSF, which previously fell under the Department of Labour, was now within the Department of Higher Education and Training.
Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande, who was also in the house, said that in the past, the NSF had become an "ATM" or "Father Christmas" for dodgy service providers. He said they were hard at work to fix the situation to avoid funds going to undeserving recipients.
Nzimande complained that some Sector Education Training Authorities (Setas) were applying for funding yet could not spend the money, while others were refused in order to fund state universities or Further Education and Training colleges.
Instead of only doing funding work, Nzimande said that about 10 percent of NSF monies should be used to build infrastructure such as large training centres in the rural areas.
Macikama said that his committee would consider bringing all the Setas "under one roof" and read them the riot act.
The portfolio committee seemed less impressed with the NFS's presentation, with Committee chairperson Advocate Motswane Ishmael Malale saying that Macikama should come back with a comprehensive and seamless plan outlining a detailed programme of action and a database of accredited service providers.
The committee also wants to see the total figure of NSF beneficiaries thus far.
COPE's Nolitha Vukuza-Linda challenged Macikama's presentation, saying it appeared as though he had been talking to himself.
Vukuza-Linda said that apart from funding projects, the plan should also illustrate its links with higher education and training.
Sbusiso Radebe of the ANC complained that BEE service providers were being rejected for alleged lack of capacity, adding that there was a lack of monitoring for NSF projects.
Nzimande said that their top priority would be to assist black youth who were most disadvantaged.
He outlined that part of the under-spending by the NSF had been due to lack of lack of infrastructure to support projects.
Macikama said they had a staff compliment of only 38 people to monitor projects across the country. However, he said the Department of Labour was also assisting with monitoring.
Ground breaking changes in the way the NSF worked would be implemented starting next month, he said.
