The Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (Inseta) is facing a severe governance crisis stemming from its CEO’s contract renewal process that has been found irregular and is also under investigation by its board.
The flawed governance process, where one board member assisted by a senior executive oversaw the reappointment of Gugulethu “Gugu” Mkhize, has also been flagged by the auditor-general, according to internal Inseta documents leaked to Sunday Times.
Mkhize signed a new five-year contract last September, set to run until March 2030.
The board member, Reserve Bank senior manager Zanele Motsa, allegedly resigned from the Inseta board after being confronted about the process. Motsa, responding to an enquiry, dismissed insinuations that her resignation was related to the reappointment, which she defended.
“The recommendation to reappoint the CEO was a collective decision of the board, made in line with its fiduciary responsibilities ... Throughout this process, I acted objectively and professionally without any influence, favour or prejudice,” Motsa said. She maintained her resignation was for personal reasons, unrelated to the probe.
Internal records confirm the reappointment process bypassed standard human resource channels and violated directives from higher education minister Buti Manamela.
The minister had explicitly required a forensic investigation into previous maladministration allegations, a five-year performance assessment and salary benchmarking for Mkhize’s reappointment. According to a source, “None of this was done because Zanele ran with this on her own but still misled the ministry by claiming it was a board process when it was just her and one member of the executive.”
At least two board members disputed Motsa’s claims of board unanimity.
An insider confirmed that when Motsa claimed the board was involved, other members revealed they had not participated in the appointment process and expressed dissatisfaction that all the minister’s conditions were unmet. The same insider noted Motsa ran the process with the head of risk, Farzana Safia, instead of corporate services. Motsa justified how things were done, saying it was the norm that before board committees were constituted, acting chairpersons ordinarily implemented board resolutions on their own.
Mkhize, who has been at the helm at Seta since December 2020, was reappointed in October 2025.
This was at a time when the Seta board was not fully constituted, and had no chairperson or sub-committees.
At that time newly-minted higher education minister Manamela, seeking to restore order in a sector ravaged by his predecessor, had directed Setas to move with haste to either reappoint CEOs or appoint new ones.
In the case of Inseta, his directive was that if the Seta sought to reappoint Mkhize, it had to first institute an independent forensic investigation into allegations of malfeasance raised by Outa, verify her qualifications, benchmark her salary offer, and also do an assessment of her performance in her previous five-year tenure. It is these functions that Inseta was uncertain about that were done by Motsa and Safia.
Mkhize’s appointment is one of eight Seta CEO reappointments being challenged in a high court review application by the EFF, citing Manamela as a respondent.
The minister instructed affected Setas to form a joint task team to compile aligned affidavits to prove a rational sequencing of their governance processes.
The allegations that Mkhize’s contract was processed outside standard HR protocols, with hidden records and allegedly doctored minutes, jeopardise this joint defence.
Motsa declined to comment further on active litigation but stated that she had executed her duties with transparency and accountability at the time of her departure.
The accounting authority did not comply with legislation ... during the appointment process of the current CEO and further did not adequately assess the requirement for satisfactory performance
— The auditor-general
The auditor-general (AG) also flagged Mkhize’s appointment, issuing a finding that the process flouted the Skills Development Act and Seta Conditions of Service and Appointment Regulations.
The AG found Inseta failed to nationally advertise the post, run a competitive recruitment process or interview alternative candidates.
The AG rejected Motsa and Safia’s view that Mkhize met the “satisfactory performance” requirement, noting Inseta’s performance regressed sharply under her tenure.
The AG’s draft finding stated: “The accounting authority did not comply with legislation ... during the appointment process of the current CEO and further did not adequately assess the requirement for satisfactory performance. This is evidenced by the entity achieving qualified audit opinions over a number of years, yet representations were made to the minister that the control environment has improved.”
Inseta has had a four-year cycle of qualified audit opinions. Consequently, the AG has recommended that all remuneration paid under the new contract be declared irregular expenditure. This finding is not final and requires Inseta’s input before the AG submits its final report to parliament.
Mkhize referred all enquiries to Inseta. Inseta’s board, the “newly appointed accounting authority”, stated it is “in the process of addressing and resolving some of these matters through the appropriate governance processes”, and is subject to “ongoing engagement”.
They declined extensive comment due to “ongoing governance processes and litigation”, saying “it would not be appropriate for Inseta to comment extensively on the specific issues raised at this stage.”
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