Johannesburg – The appointment of the new board of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has run into problems after one of the “overlooked” candidates approached the Western Cape High Court to interdict the whole process.
Letlhogonolo Maimane, the former chairperson of the Student Representative Council of the University of Johannesburg, pleaded with the court to put a stop to the appointment of the much-awaited board, claiming he was unfairly excluded.
In part B of his application, Maimane also wants parliament to restart the process. However, Maimane must first convince the court the matter is urgent.
“I brought this application, part A, to seek the intervention of this honourable court to interdict the ongoing process of interviews and/or the outcome of the interviews and any appointment of any candidates by the third respondent [President Cyril Ramaphosa] from the interviews conducted by the first [Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise] and second respondent [the sub-committee of the portfolio committee on women, youth and persons with disabilities and the select committee on health and social services],” his affidavit reads in part.
He goes on to say that he also seeks an order that will compel the respondents to review the entire process that was undertaken. “…if the process is found to be flawed as alleged, then the entire process start again from the advertisement of all the applicants at the same time.”
Maimane claims he applied on May 18. However, to his surprise, when the names of candidates were published on May 19, his name and those of other candidates were left out. He said he then brought up the matter with the sub-committee through his attorneys, Mokwena Nkopane Inc.
Maimane claims that the names of the 40 shortlisted candidates were made public on May 27, before the closing date for public comment.
“In the circumstances, our client was not afforded an equal opportunity like other candidates to have his name and curriculum vitae uploaded timeously for public comments, furthermore, our client was prejudiced by not being alerted of this predicament,” part of the letter from Maimane’s attorney reads. The NYDA board has seven vacancies after the term of previous board members expired in May 2020. The board members will hold office for three years. The 40 candidates were interviewed from June 22 to 25. Some of the high-profile people in the running include political analyst and radio personality Lukhona Mnguni.
The appointment of the NYDA board is no stranger to controversy.
The process stalled in September after the National Assembly sent back the report recommending the candidates to serve on the board to the committee for further consideration.
This was after Modise received complaints on the selection process that was followed by the committee amid legal threats in some quarters. The matter will be ventilated in court on Tuesday. The state attorney office has indicated to Maimane’s lawyers that Modise and the subcommittee will oppose the matter.
“We are in the process of appointing an Advocate, to prepare our clients answering affidavit. We hoping to file the answering affidavit on Monday and the matter can be heard on Tuesday.”
Ramaphosa has said he will abide by any decision the court arrives at.
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