After a public legal fight with Blade Nzimande, and losing his job as CEO of Services SETA, Ivor Blumenthal finally writes a book that addresses the circumstances of his leaving, and the state of the Services SETA as he left it. In simple terms, Blumenthal describes the warts that popped up in the system – from racist and gender bias to the inordinate expensive of it, serving only a narrow segment of South African society. Blumenthal concludes that, historically, the industrial framework in this country was established to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

Through a blow-by-blow, chronological review of his time at the head of the Services SETA, the book clearly points out the system faults, as well as those of government. 50 Shades of Greed looks at the pre-1994 history of the Services SETA, and why it needed to change drastically. Blumenthal then moves on to discuss the changes implemented – from the new mandate, and how it was carried out, to the key players and new-found successes. Though it deals with all that was wrong with the system, 50 Shades of Greed is also redemptive as it takes an in-depth look at the Services SETA, and the wide-scale re-development of the Skills Development Framework.

Finally, 50 Shades of Greed undertakes a post-2010 analysis of what remains of the Services SETA system, how different it is from the original ineffective mandate, and its success rate.