Tomorrow, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities will start the process of interviewing candidates for the Board of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
The interview process will be critical in installing an independent, competent and qualified Board at the Agency which has historically been nothing more than a graduation school for members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).
When looking at the NYDA you see exactly why an ANC government can never empower our young people. It is a bloated bureaucracy run by ANCYL cadres; installed as the arbiters of patronage; and abused by those in power to maintain their luxury lifestyles. Not so long ago, the DA raised the fact that the board chairperson and CEO had personal drivers to chauffeur them around at the taxpayer’s expense.
And whilst the NYDA has gone some way in cleaning up its act, the Agency continues to leave youth behind. This is why it is critical for the new NYDA board to be free of political influence and patronage. The Agency can no longer only exist for the benefit of ANC card carriers and those who are closely linked to the political elite, all young South Africans should benefit from the funding and programmes offered by the NYDA.
The International Labour Organisation indicated that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, young people were already three times more likely to be unemployed.
The NYDA’s focus should therefore be on the funding of entrepreneurs; job creation and business development support; providing bursaries; skills training; and job preparedness. It cannot be that there is less for our youth whilst more is consumed by the entity itself.
As the NYDA board interviews loom the DA calls on all members of the Committee to put the interests of young, unemployed South Africans first, and not their political interests.
The DA oppose any further attempts at politicising the NYDA – we did so during the shortlisting process, and we will do so again during the interviews. The NYDA cannot afford to be graduation school for the ANCYL, South African Students Congress, and Young Communist League cadres.