DA Youth: We are withdrawing from the NYDA

I am today resigning as the Democratic Alliance Youth's representative on the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), and the DA Youth is therefore withdrawing from this organisation, which we are convinced has become little more than a R400-million ANC patronage scheme.

In the past few days, the DA has exposed how an additional R29 million in the appropriations adjustment has been designated to the NYDA, for the hosting of the ANC Youth League's nine-day "World Festival of Youth and Students" conference, which will provide a platform for some of the most radical youth groups on the planet.

Amongst them are the ZANU-PF Youth League from Zimbabwe, and the youth league of the Workers Party of North Korea - who hosted this same event in Pyongyang not too long ago, and will be recipients of a "solidarity" pledge at this year's event.

In terms of statute, the NYDA is a body that is ostensibly intended to promote youth development in South Africa. This is a laudable aim, and the DA Youth was therefore willing to give the NYDA the opportunity to work. However, evidence now abounds that the NYDA's independence and standing as a public body has been terminally compromised. This latest scandal illustrates the problem all too clearly, but we have also seen in recent months how this institution's mandate has veered hopelessly off course:

Firstly, the NYDA has comprehensively failed to fulfil its specified objectives. As was recently revealed in its annual report, it has met just 23 of its 68 targets over the past financial year - a 24% success rate. In those circumstances, we have no desire to be part of an institution that is frittering away state funds, and utterly failing to meet its mandate.

Secondly, as our Youth Chairperson Mbali Ntuli recently put it, the NYDA is simply a place where ANCYL members can get rich. The ANC Youth League-dominated executive of this institution earn a total of R11 million per year. The Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC Youth League, Steven Ngubeni, draws a R1.8-million salary - more than cabinet ministers. Further, as DA Youth Leader Makashule Gana pointed out last week, South African Youth Council (SAYC) President, Thulani Tshefuta, has essentially admitted in public that nominations for seven of the NYDA Provincial Advisory Boards were reopened simply to give an opportunity for ANC Youth League deployees, agreed upon by the ANCYL National General Council at the end of August, an opportunity to apply for those positions. The DA Youth will have nothing to do with an institution that simply exists to dispense patronage.

Thirdly, upon its creation in 2009, the NYDA set about dismantling one of the few tangible benefits of its predecessor, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF), by more than halving the targets for voucher distribution - causing many accredited service providers to go out of business, and further diminishing the entity's ability to foster youth entrepreneurship. As former DA Youth spokesperson Khume Ramulifho pointed out at the time:

"One service provider has shared his predicament with the DA Youth: As a result of his work with the UYF, he has created direct employment for 9 persons in two years, most of whom are previously disadvantaged. He has invested over R100,000 into the business at his own risk to provide computers, software and basic furniture and signed a lease for premises. This was after he had signed a three-year service agreement with the UYF in May 2009, which was removed by the stroke of a pen with no notice in early June 2009. Further, the two main Gauteng branches have temporarily shelved the voucher program in full."

The DA Youth will continue to support the real levers of youth development in South Africa: the introduction of a wage subsidy for young South Africans, the expansion of FET college funding, and the raising of the NSFAS income eligibility threshold. We will continue to champion the issues that can bring tangible benefits to our youth. But we have no interest in continuing to participate in an entity that does nothing to advance economic participation or skills development amongst the youth. We will not continue to give it legitimacy.

Statement issued by Aimee Franklin, Democratic Alliance National Youth Director, November 19 2010

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