The Democratic Alliance (DA) objects to the final list of candidates who have been recommended by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities to serve on the board of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
We are of the view that the majority of the candidates are politically compromised and have been installed by the ANC members of the Committee in yet another classic case of ANC cadre deployment.
While the DA supported the inclusion of Lukhona Mguni, we objected to the rest of the recommendations as we do not believe that the board is inclusive and representative in terms of Section 4 of the NYDA Act, nor do we believe that the board will work independently and in the best interest of South Africa’s youth.
The DA will not sit by and watch as Parliament passively enables the NYDA board to be turned into a graduation school filled with ANC cadres. It is for this reason that we will once again raise our objection to these candidates when the report on the board appointment process is tabled before the Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Committee later today.
We are also in the process of exploring all the available legal avenues to challenge these recommendations.
These board recommendations is yet another example of how the ANC continues to brazenly install its cadres at public entities in order to facilitate the capture and looting of the public purse.
From the onset of the appointment process, the DA advocated for the NYDA board to be free of political influence and patronage, as the Agency can no longer only exist for the benefit of ANC card carriers and those who are closely linked to the political elite.
Young South Africans are simply being excluded from funding opportunities and programmes offered by the NYDA. And instead, the Agency continues to be a bloated bureaucracy run by ANCYL acolytes; installed as the arbiters of patronage; and abused by those in power to maintain their luxury lifestyles.