EDITORIAL | The building fiasco hardly inspires confidence in Ceta

Imagine waking up to put in a day’s work in a dirty building that costs R49m but does not have proper functioning air-conditioning and poses a safety hazard to employees.

The mere thought is revolting, but it’s the outlandish reality faced by staff who venture into the headquarters of a government-related public entity in Midrand, Johannesburg.

To make matters worse, the offices are home to the embattled Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta). And that is where the story enters the realm of the theatre of the absurd.

Ceta’s key objectives include providing skills development services to the country’s construction sector and ensuring people obtain critical or scarce skills needed to build the capacity of the sector to become economically sustainable and globally competitive.

Its values include “acting and discharging our duties with absolute honesty, and in compliance with laws and applicable norms”.

How could an entity that is entrusted with bolstering the country’s construction sector be headquartered in what, on the face of things, fails to meet basic workplace safety compliance standards? It hardly inspires confidence in Ceta.

“The building is filthy, there is no air conditioning, and there are cables everywhere posing a safety hazard,” a Ceta employee told the Sunday Times.

They were adamant the building was “not worth the money spent on it” despite earlier assurances to the contrary by now-ousted former Ceta CEO Malusi Shezi that the acquisition was good value for money.

Now it transpires, as we reported on Wednesday, that Ceta seems poised to spend an additional R20m to ensure the building actually complies with Occupational Health and Safety requirements (in other words provides a safe and healthy work environment), including overhauling the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

And to top things off, we previously reported that the auditor-general was of the opinion that the purchase of the building was in itself irregular, as it did not follow proper procurement processes.

This contradicted previous protestations by Shezi, the acting CFO and spokesperson, who accused the AG’s senior audit team of unprofessionalism and engaging in “unfair audit practices”.

Ceta has received a number of qualified audit opinions in recent years from the AG. Higher education minister Buti Manamela placed the entity under administration in August, citing problems such as procurement irregularities, a lack of oversight and poor governance.

You can’t make this up, you might say. How could an entity that is entrusted with bolstering the country’s construction sector be headquartered in what, on the face of things, fails to meet basic workplace safety compliance standards? It hardly inspires confidence in Ceta.

It’s important to note that the reason we know about these shenanigans is thanks to whistle-blowing staff who noticed the rot (and were in turn allegedly victimised), the tireless digging by investigative journalists, and, of course, the work done by the office of the AG to hold the entity accountable for its deeds and misdeeds.

It is precisely without those combined layers of oversight that donor, government and taxpayer-funded initiatives are exposed to malfeasance and abuse.

What we must guard against scrupulously, as citizens, is reaching the stage where the sheer scale of hanky-panky going on in the corridors of political power, and business too, leaves us numb, disengaged and wanting to “tune out” from the noise. That’s when the rot takes hold.

If anything, we should be shouting from the rooftops demanding accountability, consequences and solutions from the powers that be.

Everyone’s future depends on it.