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South Africa’s youth cannot afford another National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) board packed with ANC deployees.

Today I will do a declaration in the National Assembly to express my dissatisfaction with the continued manipulation of an agency whose primary priority should be to empower and uplift the youth of South Africa.

A quick look at the candidates nominated by Parliament's Ad Hoc Joint Committee for the appointment of candidates to the NYDA board reveals that the new board is set to be dominated by cadres of the ANC and its tripartite alliance allies.

Out of seven nominees, five have links to the ANC or its tripartite alliance partners:
Ayanda Bambiso, former leader of the ANCYL-aligned SA Students Congress (Sasco);
Maropene Lydia Ntuli, ANCYL NEC member;
Kenny Morolong, North West ANC provincial executive committee member and provincial spokesman;
Yershen Pillay, Young Communist League Leader and former Deputy Chairperson of the NYDA board; and
Mothupi Modiba, Sasco leader and Gauteng ANC Youth League member.
Far from assisting in the development of young South Africans, the NYDA has consistently shown itself to be nothing more than a vehicle for national government to use public money to reward ANC and Youth League cadres for political loyalty.

It’s not hard to see why ANC and Youth League members are so eager to serve in the Agency’s management:
It has been reported that board members earn between R30 000 and R40 000 a month for doing as little as attending four meetings a year.
NYDA chief executive Steven Ngubeni last year earned R1.8 million, the same as a Cabinet minister.
Ngubeni’s colleague, Chief Operations Officer Magdalene Moonsamy, who is also the ANCYL spokesperson, earns R1.2 million annually.
The NYDA has, in the past, shown itself to be a channel for patronage for the ANC and the ANCYL. In 2011 R40 million was channelled via NYDA to the Festival of Youth and Students, which was essentially an ANCYL event

The DA and the DA Youth have repeatedly called for the NYDA to be disbanded, and for the Agency’s multi-million rand budget to be put towards initiatives that will truly uplift young South Africans – like the Youth Wage Subsidy.