Plumbing Africa talks to Malusi Shezi , CEO of CETA
FEATURE 31
By
Rory Macnamara
After a period of being under administration , the Construction Education and Training Authority ( CETA ) has a new Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ).
Malusi Shezi , when one first meets him , is an imposing person and when he starts speaking , he is someone who clearly knows what his role is and that he is going to achieve it .
Without dwelling on the past , Shezi briefly explained how CETA had got into Administration ( popularly known as business rescue in the private sector ) and the importance of appreciating the changes that needed to be made at the CETA to provide stakeholders with the service they deserve and professional treatment – recognising that all the stakeholders are a number one priority as the stakeholders are levy payers who fund the CETA operations per the SDA and SDLA .
“ There was a certain culture in CETA in the past which at best can be described as toxic , self-interested and inward looking , which did not make for a conducive customer / stakeholder centric environment , resulting in some stakeholders moving away from CETA to other SETAs that were more sensitive to their needs . There were certain performance , governance , financial and management or maladministration issues , all of which resulted in a decision by the Minister of HEST to place CETA under Administration .
A further problem was that the policies in the organisation tended to cause confusion as these could not be construed as either policies or procedures – allowing for too much ambiguity in interpretation ,” Shezi explains .
That was the situation concisely and Plumbing Africa asked what had been learnt from the outcome of being under Administration and how will CETA of the future benefit all stakeholders going forward .
Malusi Shezi , CEO of Construction Education Training Authority
CETA
“ Initially we needed to review our governance structures and the composition , reconstitute the accounting authority which is the Board and streamline to have leaner committees of the Board . In the past there were six committees and these have been reduced to four to ensure value , add governance oversight improvement , and ensure effectiveness .
The need to review policies was apparent from Board terms of reference , the CETA constitution administration , all HR policies , procedures and specifically the issue of performance management . These are critical for any organisation to become a high-performance and learning organisation . This is work in progress as improvement is something one is always looking for . We reviewed the organogram , which has been refined , and is a living document , so reviews are ongoing for the CETA organisation .
Fundamentally we have these focus areas , namely , effective stakeholder management and relations , strengthened governance , and fit for purpose operating models ,” states Shezi .
Plumbing Africa , accepting the high-level input , now directed the discussion to the strategy and how the recommendations of the Administrator would be actioned at ground level .
February 2023 Volume 28 I Number 12 www . plumbingafrica . co . za