The DA Youth is today writing to Minister in the Presidency, Collins Chabane, to request urgent intervention in the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) after areply to a parliamentary question revealed that leading to 2015, the Agency is planning on spending over 100% of their budget on staff salaries. 

At present the NYDA employs 500 people at an average cost of R29 000 per staff member per month. This total staff cost of R174 million makes up an already high 42% of the agency's overall expenditure. 

In a reply to a parliamentary question released today, it was revealed that the NYDA board has approved a new operational structure that will quadruple the number of staff members to 2152 employees by 2015. 

In terms of the medium term expenditure estimate set by the national treasury, in 2015 the NYDA is due to receive R419 million to fund its operations. But working on the R29 000 per staff member average, the staffing costs alone approved by the NYDA board for 2015 amount to R749 million - a R330 million overspend on the total budget. Even working on a conservative average staff allocation of R18 000 per employee per month to cater for clerical staff, the salary bill comes in at R465 million. 

We have known for a long time that the ANC Youth League-aligned national NYDA board is running an employment agency for pals. It is only now that we can see just how focused on staffing, to the exclusion of real youth development, the NYDA Board is - to the point that its plans are simply nonsensical. 

No organisation can operate when their strategic plans and budget are so incompatible. For this reason we will be requesting urgent intervention from Minister Chabane, who needs to explain to South Africa why this situation has been allowed to unfold. 

Statement issued by Makashule Gana, DA Youth Leader, March 13 2012

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