Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members and guests, we want to state at the outset that Azapo supports Budget Vote No 17. We welcome the doubling of the allocation to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. We do so hoping that NSFAS will improve its management and the rate at which funds are being disbursed, because, despite assurances that we got from NSFAS in the past, we still have students who could not register because they did not have the registration fees. Azapo supports your call for Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, to involve and spend more on public Further Education and Training, FET, colleges as service providers. We are not calling for the exclusion of private providers, but we find it difficult to understand how money from the public purse should end up in private hands. We see the same thing happening in Health, where money from the public purse ends up in private hospitals, to the detriment of public hospitals. However, public FET colleges will have to find answers to why they are not the service providers of choice. We fully support the transformation of the Setas and the ushering in of NSDF 3.
As we did previously in other discussions, hon Minister, we want to repeat the following: We want to caution that there is a thin line between being hands-on and micromanaging. We do not support the involvement of the Minister in the appointment of the chairpersons of Seta boards. We agree with you that Setas are public entities but they are only schedule 3. They are not state-owned enterprises.
We also do not support the involvement of the Minister in the appointment of Seta chief executive officers, CEOs. The Seta boards carry fiduciary responsibilities and they should be competent to appoint CEOs who should account to them. As we have said earlier, Minister, Azapo supports Budget Vote No 17.