Students without certificate, but school says SETA is to blame

Many matriculants opt for private education and training centres to further their studies in the hope of acquiring skills and qualifications that will secure them good jobs one day. But what happens when students discover - after months of hard work spent to complete their courses - that the courses they had registered for will not provide them with a certificate?

Andani Nataniel Munyai (25), a resident at Madombidzha village, is among a number of students whose future now hangs in limbo. He completed a 12-month course in ancillary health care (nursing) with the Mvelaphanda Development & Projects Training Centre in November 2018, but the centre could not provide him with a certificate.

“They said that the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) is supposed to issue our certificates within two weeks upon receiving submissions of completed requirements from the training centre,” Munyai said. “But two weeks had become almost three years now of waiting and agonising, as I can’t secure a job without my qualification.”

Munyai paid R28 000 in cash upon registering for his course. He says it had taken his parents a long time to save up for his tuition fees by selling vegetables on the streets of Louis Trichardt. “To think that my parents couldn’t even buy a soft drink to quench their thirst in the scorching summer sun as they worked, or afford to buy adequate jerseys in the winter because they wanted to first save for my studies. It tears at my heart,” he said. “It feels like their sacrifices were for nothing!”

He is worried that the training centre has denied him the opportunity to practice as an ancillary nurse and contribute towards the country’s health-care system. “I didn’t just study nursing for the money. I did so because, to me, nursing is a calling through which I want to serve God and humanity,” he said.

Munyai inquired about his certificate from the training centre on countless occasions, but received no reasonable explanation for the delay. He said that they cite the Covid-19 pandemic now as the cause for delay, and the reason why HWSETA takes so long in finalising students’ certificates.  

Munyai’s mother, Vho-Elisa Tharaga, who paid the tuition fees, is not in the least pleased with the training centre’s appalling attitude towards her son. “As his parents, we worked ten times harder to ensure that we raised monies to fund his studies,” she said. “We are distraught. Since he completed the course, the training centre kept on delaying the issuing of his certificate.”

Tharaga remembered that when her son had to do a six-month practical in Modjadjiskloof, they had no money at all, but still they made provision for his accommodation in the vicinity of the old-age home where he was stationed, and for food. “We wanted our child to have skills and a qualification, so that he could get a job and start earning for himself,” she said. “He is always complaining about the bad treatment from the Mvelaphanda Development & Projects Training Centre, who should have issued his qualification certificate long ago. Whenever he spots a nursing job advert, he shows it to me with his eyes filled with sorrow.”

Mvelaphanda Development and Projects Training Centre’s managing director, Ms Esther Mushathama, acknowledged that the 2018 ancillary health-care learners have not received their certificates yet. “We confirm that the learners in question are yet to receive their certifications, but this is entirely due to factors beyond our control as a college,” Mushathama said. “The HWSETA system changed, and the Covid-19 outbreak in the same period delayed the verification process enormously. It is also important to note that we are not the only college affected by these inordinate delays as a consequence of the aforementioned factors and that our learners were accordingly updated about the challenges that led to the delay. It is fair to say that some [learners] ran out of patience as it would be understandable under the circumstances. But please be assured that we are on top of things and that we could not have done any better, considering all that was happening around us.”

However, when contacted for comment, the HWSETA said that Mvelaphanda Development and Projects Training Centre’s registration status had expired. “Kindly note that the system reflects that the accreditation status was valid for the period 15 July 2015 to 15 July 2020. If the student enrolled while the college was still accredited, it does not affect the certification. As soon as the college gets re-accredited, if they still want to continue with training, they can finalise assessments of learners, but if the student registered after the accreditation has reached the end date, it affects certification,” the HWSETA responded in an email.

On its website, the training centre still reflects the logos of various Setas, despite no longer being accredited to such Setas.

Date:23 October 2021

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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