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The Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Andile Lungisa, has threatened to make South Africa “ungovernable” and suggested illegal action to this end. This is akin to the chairperson of Eskom saying they would destroy all electricity pylons because electricity costs too much. If the NYDA wants to play a meaningful role in turning around our country’s unemployment problem, the best place to start is to stop playing politics and instead start to focus on making a real difference.

Lungisa’s statements are problematic for three reasons: a failure to understand the purpose of a public body, conduct unbecoming of a civil servant, and they are hypocritical.

In the first instance, the NYDA is not a political party. It is a state institution, funded by public money, answerable to South Africa at large. It is not the place of its chairperson to mobilise people to what is essentially political action.

Second, Lungisa’s suggestion that, at the NYDA’s call, the youth will “close every street in South Africa” and that “if there is a [sic] cheese in your fridge, they are going to take it”, is a deplorable statement for a public servant (indeed, the suggestion that one steal would be deplorable coming from anyone).

Third, the NYDA’s track record when it comes to addressing unemployment is sorely lacking and it is hypocritical for Lungisa to threaten mass action when there is so much more the NYDA could do. They could make a real difference in people’s lives, as opposed to the bluster and empty rhetoric with which the NYDA has become synonymous. It is ironic that Lungisa was not in such a state when the NYDA was spending millions on hosting some of the world’s leading demagogueries at the World Festival of Youth and Students, another political exercise of no value to the youth. Where was his moral indignation about unemployment then?

So, what should the NYDA really be focussing on, instead of playing politics?

A good place to start would be to join the DA Youth in our calls to the Treasury to ensure that the plans for a youth wage subsidy are implemented without delay. As stated by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, a properly implemented wage subsidy could create in the region of 500 000 jobs by 2013. The cost per job through this scheme would also be considerably less than other job creation schemes at approximately R37 000 per job, compared to an average cost of R100 000 per job per anum through the Expanded Public Works Programme, which creates short-term, low-wage jobs.

In the meantime, the NYDA should distance itself from Lungisa’s comments, and Andile Lungisa himself should hang his head in shame.