EFF MP and Youth Command leader Sihle Lonzi has slammed the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) for its political allegiance and being used as an “ANC campaign tool”, despite its mandate as a neutral entity serving all of the country’s young people.
Lonzi says the current NYDA board is the first to be supported by all political parties, as no board member was a party leader when they were first appointed.
He, however, said it was disappointing that NYDA Chair, Dr Sunshine Myende, muddied the waters when she agreed to be elected onto the ANC Youth League National Executive Committee in December.
Lonzi accuses NYDA of political agenda
A visibly upset Lonzi added that it was no coincidence that the NYDA was very present in the North West in the week ahead of the ANC’s January 8 rally in the province in January.
Calling these NYDA shenanigans, Lonzi said it was going to be difficult for young people not belonging to the ANC to believe that the agency can act neutrally, as it is mandated to.
He accused Myende of being a duplicate of her predecessor, Asanda Luwaca, who was regularly called out for wearing ANC regalia at NYDA meetings.
‘NYDA subject to political interference’
These developments, Lonzi argued, are further proof that the NYDA is nothing but an ANC campaign tool funded by the South African taxpayer. And it also appears to consistently not understand its main aim of promoting youth empowerment.
“For the first time in the history of this Parliament, we had an NYDA board that was supported by all political parties, we know how it was so difficult to get this board to come in because there was political interference,” said Lonzi.
“But we are being disappointed each and every day. You cannot tell me that it is a coincidence that on the week leading up to the birthday anniversary celebration of the ANC, in the same province that whole week there are NYDA programmes.
“We must be made to believe that out of nine provinces in South Africa, the NYDA, in that particular week, just so happened to go to the North West and do programmes that happened to coincide with the anniversary celebration of the ANC. On top of that, all those programmes they partnered with were either a minister or deputy minister of the ANC or the president of the ANC Youth League,” Lonzi continued the attack.
“We are not children. This is not the first NYDA board we interacted with, and this board is doing the same things as the last board when the ANC was celebrating its anniversary here in Khayelitsha. This board is repeating the same mistakes as their predecessors that we warned them about when they came in.
“The first conference of the ANC Youth League comes, the whole chairperson (Myende) of the NYDA board goes and gets elected as an NEC member of the ANC Youth League. Why? Our fight with the former chair of the NYDA board was that you cannot wear ANC regalia in a board meeting of the NYDA or go to work wearing an ANC T-shirt.”
‘Myende must resign as ANCYL NEC member’
Lonzi said if he were in Myende’s position, he would resign as an ANC Youth League NEC member because perceptions will haunt her throughout her NYDA term.
“When a young person who votes for the IFP or when a young person who belongs to the DA or when a young person who does not belong to any political party walks into the doors of the NYDA and finds the chairperson wearing or belonging to an ANC structure such as the ANC Youth League, immediately the message communicated to society is that this person is not here to serve me but to entrench the politics of the ANC, to campaign for the ANC and ANC Youth League, and to take the resources of the NYDA and redirect them to the direction of the ANC political programmes.
“If I were the Chair (Myende) of the NYDA and was serious about doing right, I would resign immediately as ANC Youth League NEC member and say, ‘I am ready to serve all young people in South Africa, not a clique belonging to a political party.'”
NYDA accused of wasting taxpayer money
Lonzi also slammed Myende, her deputy, and three NYDA staff members for their trip to New York in September.
The Sunday World recently exposed that the trip cost more than R1-million.
The agency’s leaders tried to keep this detail from the public.
Lonzi said NYDA leadership must stop wasting money on bogus international trips, and limit the number of people travelling.
“Why must the Chair (Myende) of NYDA take three, four, or five staff members if really this is a bilateral where they must interact with people they want to partner with?
“Why must they have someone to carry the water, someone to carry the bag, and another person to carry the cellphone?” said Lonzi.
“Why can’t the chair go alone, spending R1 million, travelling to New York, when so many businesses of young people in South Africa are struggling, when we have so many unemployed youth in South Africa, but the NYDA has the luxury to spend millions of rand travelling overseas and bringing four staff members? This is indefensible; it cannot be defended by anyone. We expect the minister (Sindi Chikunga) to call out the NYDA and say, ‘these are not things you should be focusing on’.”
