ActionSA notes Lesufi’s response to ‘Nasi Ispani’ claims, calls on Gauteng government to come clean by Monday

13 July 2023

ActionSA has noted the response by Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, to our concerns that the ‘Nasi Ispani’ campaign is being used to hire ANC cadres are “fantasies”, and therefore call on him and his government to agree to provide us with the hiring documents of all those hired through the scheme by end of Monday.

If Premier Lesufi and his ANC government have nothing to hide with the ‘Nasi Ispani’ scheme, and ANC cadres are not being employed through it, then it should surely be easy for him and his government to provide us with the documentation of who is being employed?

But, ActionSA and the general public have reason to be suspicious of the ‘Nasi Ispani’ program given the ANC’s track record of abusing state funds and the trend of hiring friends in state positions.

After hearing the pleas of thousands of young people across the province who believe they were disadvantaged in the ‘Nasi Ispani’ application process, or who believe their CVs were thrown away, ActionSA on Wednesday launched a legal process to get access to the documents of those employed through the scheme.

Once we have received the documentation, we will compare those who have been employed with ANC membership data to ascertain whether ANC members and volunteers were favoured in the ‘Nasi Ispani’ process.

The first step in the legal process is an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) which, according to legislation, the Gauteng Provincial Government must respond to within 30 days, failing which ActionSA will lodge a PAIA appeal. Thereafter we will immediately embark on a court application to have these records disclosed to us.

ActionSA believes that Gauteng’s unemployment – where more than two million people are unemployed – won’t be solved by gimmick schemes such as ‘Nasi Ispani’, but through creating the environment for private businesses to create jobs.

We simply won’t allow the ANC and Lesufi to fool our people that they are doing something to address the unemployment crisis while they might actually just be hiring their own cadres, and we are therefore following all possible channels to demand transparency and accountability.

Issued by Funzi Ngobeni, ActionSA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, 13 July 2023