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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision taken by the National Lotteries Board to reconsider the allocation of their R40 million funding grant to the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), for their scandalous “Lets fight imperialism!” festival.

Lotteries chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda is being quoted this morning stating that the Lotteries Board will “use its discretion by looking at how the money was spent. We will condone it or, if [it] deviates from the agreed line items, ask them to repay the money.”

We believe that the decision to allocate funds was unprecedented and completely wrongheaded – a gross misuse of funds which not only deprived various public charities, but also those deeply dependent on the assistance they provide. It placed sorely needed money into the NYDA coffers for a glorified ANC Youth League (ANC YL) party. The decision by the Lotteries Board, however, is at least one small step towards rectifying this disturbing state of affairs, in which a total of R40-million in lottery money has been granted to this sham.

We trust that the Lotteries Board will now also disclose the criteria by which such an unprecedented donation was made in the first place, since nowhere in its mandate has it made room for grotesquely self-indulgent week-long parties that offer no real benefit to our citizens.

The DA first revealed this scandal last year, when we established that the Treasury had granted an additional R29 million during the appropriations adjustments to the NYDA, a state entity in the Presidency. The DA uncovered that these funds were earmarked for the hosting of the nine-day ‘World Festival of Youth and Students’ event, and subsequently established that other government departments, including provincial governments, had been requested by NYDA to allocate funds for the event as well. Our Western Cape provincial administration immediately rejected NYDA’s request for financial assistance, and we called on President Zuma to boycott the event, and asked other government departments, state-owned corporations and private sector businesses that had been requested to contribute to the NYDA’s coffers by purchasing exhibition space, to abstain from doing so. It was subsequently revealed in the press that the Lotteries Board allocated a total of R40 million to the event.

Because of the DA’s efforts and continual questioning of the event itself and those involved, the total earmarked cost of the event to the public purse has already fallen dramatically – from about R370 million, to R70 million. That latter figure includes the Lotteries Board allocation. However, we have insisted from the beginning that since this is an ANC Youth League event – the ANC Youth League lobbied to host it, not the NYDA – it should be the ANC Youth League that foots the bill. We therefore welcome the Lotteries Board’s decision to review this funding allocation, as a necessary step in the right direction.