NYDA Youth Festival: Anti-imperialism conference receives single largest lotto donation?
It beggars belief that the National Lottery will be handing over R40-million in funding to the World Youth Festival, anachronistically themed as the ‘Lets defeat imperialism!' conference - a larger single allocation than it has made towards any charity this year. The funding arm of the National Lottery Board is intended for social improvement, principally through the well thought-out distribution of much needed financial resources to charities that usually rely on this funding to keep their doors open.
Indeed, if a single person who is cared for by a charity that relies on Lotto funding suffers or dies because that charity did not receive its funds, or if the funds were delayed to accommodate this ridiculous event, then the Lottery Board must take personal and collective responsibility for this grotesquely immoral act.
It would appear that in the Board's opinion, a one-week youth festival, catering for international delegates who, when not debating the finer points of obscure ideological disputes, shall be partying and networking, is more important than keeping the doors of shelters for the homeless open. Or funding half-way houses for battered women. Or feeding the starving. Or preserving national monuments. All of these causes and more have in common a desperate need for resources. Yet they are all lower priorities than a glorified ANC Youth League social event.
The NYDA event is now the single largest funding allocation provided by the Lotto in the last year:
1. ANC Youth League / NYDA "Let's fight imperialism!" conference: R40,000,000
2. BADISA: R24,068,146
3. National Heritage Council: R19,658,635
4. Athletics South Africa: R18,945,034
5. MaAfrika Tikkun Association: R17,924,143
6. SASCOC: R17,727,000
7. Rural Development Services Network : R16,500,000
8. Foodbank SA : R16,000,000
9. Kwesukela Storytelling Academy : R12,916,327
10. Age in Action : R12,674,237
We fail to see how funding this self-indulgent networking opportunity falls within the purview of the National Lottery's remit. Indeed, even if we considered a broader view of the Board's mandate, in addition to charities, its funds are intended to assist sporting bodies, and arts, culture and heritage programmes that benefit all South Africans.
As such, there is no room under any of the definitional criteria of its mandate, for funding outlandish one-week extravaganzas that offer no benefit to our citizens. It is an insult that this jamboree will receive more money in one week than any of the charities and welfare organizations did during the whole of last year.
We shall be writing to Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, who is legally required to approve the funding of "miscellaneous" programmes, to ask what his criteria were for granting the NYDA's request. We will also ask him to tell us which charities applied for funding prior to the NYDA, but which have not yet received an answer to their application or a promise of funding.
The DA Youth cannot imagine a less worthy cause for public charity money than this festival. We feel insulted on behalf of the hundreds of charities that have to wait for months to receive Lottery payments, if at all. For instance, in 2008/09, R 2.2 billion of approved funding applications from charities were not paid out, while in 2007/08, of 8,375 applications for financial assistance sent to the Lotto Board, 5,101 were not processed.
In other words, the Lotto Board failed to even give consideration to 61 per cent of applicants. Further, R 1.8 billion worth of approved funds were not paid to the applicants in that year. It is remarkable, given this record, that the Lottery Board sees fit to dispense an enormous cash injection into a radical youth festival that is simply a gravy train for ANC Youth League cadres.
Statement issued by Makashule Gana, Democratic Alliance Federal Youth Leader, December 10 2010
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