Note to Editors: The following statement follows a picket, led by the DA Youth Leader, Luyolo Mphithi, at the NYDA’s Newtown, Johannesburg offices. A memorandum of demands was handed over to the Agency. The DA Youth Leader was joined by DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom, DA Youth Johannesburg Regional Chairperson, Lincoln Machaba, DA Youth Spokesperson, Dikeledi Selowa, and DA Youth Provincial Chairpersons from each province.
Please see pics here, here and here.
Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Youth staged a mass picket outside the failing National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) offices in Newtown, Johannesburg. Our members made an unambiguous call for the Agency to be disbanded.
The Agency was established with the aim of empowering young people and equipping them the skills to meaningfully participate in the economy and create jobs – this has not happened. Instead, the Agency has become a feeding scheme for those close to the ANCYL and YCL, while young people continue to be oppressed by poverty and unemployment.
NYDA executives, led by the ANCYL’s Sifiso Mtsweni earn seven-figure salaries and live the good life, without producing any programme that will free 6.1-million young people (15 -34) from the chains unemployment.
The Agency is plagued by corruption and a lack of leadership that will build a country where young people work – as employers and employees – instead of congregating on street corners waiting for the day to pass.
Where the DA governs, jobs are created, and youth empowerment is taken seriously. Programmes, spearheaded by the Mayors, to empower young people have shown great success in Tshwane, Midvaal, Nelson Mandela Bay and Cape Town. Just yesterday Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba committed to personalyl pay for the university studies of a young man who has been forgotten by the failed ANC government and the corrupt NYDA.
The fact that DA governments are creating jobs, while failing ANC governments bleed jobs, shows that the DA is the only party with a plan and policies that is able to build an inclusive and dynamic economy.
In 2019, young people will have the power to bring much needed change to South Africa. The kind of change that unlocks opportunities and creates real jobs.