There was the proverbial and figurative blood on the floor in parliament on Tuesday as warring factions at the state youth agency NYDA were at each other’s throats in the full glare of shocked lawmakers.
After months of battling it out in the media and internally at NYDA through whistleblower reports, the warring NYDA board members could not hold themselves at the joint Scopa and youth portfolio committee meeting at the Marks Building in Cape Town.
The battle lines were drawn between the executive chairperson of the entity Dr Sunshine Myende and her deputy, Bonga Makhanya, with the rest of the board members and members of the management showing their allegiance to either faction.
If the young ones were not throwing mud at each other, they were throwing each other under the bus or shifting the blame for massive governance collapse within NYDA.
Degeneration stuns minster Chikunga
Even government shareholder youth minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who tried hard to hide that she aligns with Myende, was taken aback by the level of degeneration, which she described as a manifestation of young people being young.
The meeting itself almost totally collapsed when Myende stunned everyone, revealing a “whistleblower” complaint of “sexual extortion” against Makhanya before a board member sympathetic to the deputy chair countered that there was in fact another sexual harassment case against the chief executive, Ndumiso Kubheka.
With emotions running high, only taking a lunch break would restore some level of sanity at a point when it appeared that a fist fight breaking out was inevitable.
The highly acclaimed EFF MP characterized the NYDA internal wars as being a result of a policy structural problem of having “three CEOs” saying it was never going to work to have a board chair and deputy who have executive powers when an entity has a chief executive.
The rest of the joint committee fully agreed with this characterisation, with others adding that it was clear even to a Grade R kindergarten that factionalism was rife at NYDA under the current board that is only 10 months in office.
It was Makhanya who drew the first blood when he distanced himself from statements made to the committee by Myende, defining those as “definitely not true” and saying he had never sat in a meeting where such things were discussed and resolved on.
Restraining order against journalist
The biggest bones of contention were the now infamous and unprecedented step taken by Myende to seek a restraining order against a journalist for holding her accountable, which has since emerged to have been Myende’s own personal choice but at the expense of the NYDA and, by extension, the taxpayer.
Makhanya also distanced himself from another highly contentious issue, which revolved around the seemingly irregular and perpetual extension of the tenure of the NYDA Audit and Risk Committee (ARC), which Myende, supported by minister Chikunga, claimed was a resolution of a board.
An unsuspecting Scopa chair, Songezo Zibi, stoked the initial fires when he sought to probe the extension of the ARC and how such a decision was taken at the NYDA AGM attended by Chikunga.
As Zibi made an input that such was unusual in terms of existing corporate governance laws, especially since it was then framed as the decision of the board and not that of the shareholder (Chikunga).
Myende, seeking to protect her ally the minister, defended the decision, saying the minister was involved because information about the recruitment process for the ARC had been leaked; hence, Chikunga was called upon.
Makhanya loses cool
Makhanya, who until this point had been cool like a cucumber, lost it and snapped.
“There is a slight challenge about some of the responses that have been given by our chair (Myende), and it is unfortunate. I have a discomfort with the impression that there is a board meeting that sat and resolved to extend the audit and risk committee of the board,” Makhanya launched the first salvo.
“I just wanted to clarify that and just absolve myself from whatever comment the chairperson has made.”
Myende clearly did not take this well but attempted to compose herself while stumbling over the many probing questions from MPs in a comical way that would put Trevor Noah to shame.
Makhanya’s jibe continued eating her inside, and that was until it got to a point of the whistleblower reports that have been flying all over NYDA about its top brass.
It was her perfect moment to go for the kill, and she fired a missile that could be likened to the military-grade artillery used in the US versus Iran war that is ongoing somewhere in the Middle East.
“There has been a sexual harassment case, called sexual extortion, complaint brought against the deputy chair (Makhanya) to say that he is offering people bursaries, jobs, and a whole lot of things. It is one of the matters I brought to the executive authority (Chikunga) because I do not want to be conflicted in the matter,” she said as jaws dropped inside the meeting room.
Two sexual harassment allegations
An ally of Makhanya in the NYDA board, Busisiwe Nxumalo jumped in, saying, “we should have consistency on this because there were two sexual harassment allegations; it was not only on the deputy chair (Makhanya) but it was also on the CEO (Kubheka).
From that point it was a race to the bottom with MPs lamenting about the shocking levels with which the ructions at NYDA had gone such that board members would want to nail each other on the cross for the public to see.
Their agemate, Lonzi of the EFF, made the most sober submission when he called for spears to be put down in the interest of the great good of young people that NYDA serves.
“I was taken aback when members of the NYDA board were accusing each other of sexual harassment. Comrades, you are very young from those type of low politics,” said Lonzi.
“You cannot weaponize GBV against each other; it is so low and destructive. All of you must still go work together after this; you have three years together. Accusing each other like this is so wrong, and I want you guys to reflect on this.
“Having differences does not mean you must character assassinate each other; worse, it means using the plight of GBV.”
The meeting ended with NYDA board members and management distancing themselves individually from the decision to use NYDA lawyers in the case of Myende “in my personal capacity,” where she obtained an interim restraining order against a journalist.
The blame for this, which MPs defined as clear financial misconduct, ended up being placed at the door of the NYDA legal manager, who happened to be absent from the meeting as the heat became too much for Myende to bear.
- There was the proverbial and figurative blood on the floor in parliament on Tuesday as warring factions at the state youth agency NYDA were at each other’s throats in the full glare of shocked lawmakers.
- After months of battling it out in the media and internally at NYDA through whistleblower reports, the warring NYDA board members could not hold themselves at the joint Scopa and youth portfolio committee meeting at the Marks Building in Cape Town.
- The battle lines were drawn between the executive chairperson of the entity Dr Sunshine Myende and her deputy, Bonga Makhanya, with the rest of the board members and members of the management showing their allegiance to either faction.
- If the young ones were not throwing mud at each other, they were throwing each other under the bus or shifting the blame for massive governance collapse within NYDA.
- Degeneration stuns minster Chikunga Even government shareholder youth minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who tried hard to hide that she aligns with Myende, was taken aback by the level of degeneration, which she described as a manifestation of young people being young.
