House Chairperson, November marks six months that the National Youth Development Agency has been without a national board. With youth unemployment continuing to spiral out of control it is simply unthinkable that billions of rand meant for youth development are being pumped into an agency that has not demonstrated that it is able to deliver on its mandate, and has now remained boardless for over half a year.
A letter sent by the DA youth to the President in August imploring him to reject the proposed ANC-aligned board candidates and appoint politically neutral board members remains unanswered.
The NYDA remains without a board, and this is a concern to us. It also slips the youth into deep crisis every day. Is this yet another decision that the President is putting on hold to protect his political career until after Mangaung? There can be no other compelling reason as to why NYDA would be left without a national board for so long. We saw it with the youth wage subsidy, regarding which the President is allowing a deadlock to persist while kowtowing to the Congress of SA Trade Unions, Cosatu, and now we see this with NYDA as well.
President Jacob Zuma is quite happy to let South Africa's youth burn to protect his own political career. These are actions by the President to save him in December, but come 2014, the President's complete disregard of the youth of South Africa will not be forgotten. Thank you.
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY - PERFORMANCE MONITORING, EVALUATION AND ADMINISTRATION: Hon Chair, a few days ago there was a question from Cope on this matter, which we responded to and which was exactly the same question. It is unfortunate that the member who was in the House, if I recall, decides to misrepresent the facts. I'm quite aware that members of the House passed a law, which prescribes how the board of the National Youth Development Agency is supposed to be appointed.
In November last year, we advised Parliament to start the process of appointing the board. Parliament advertised and nominations were made. Parliament appointed a joint interim committee of the two Houses to consider the applications. In terms of that process, they went through the interviews. The end product of that process has never been presented to the President until today. So it cannot be said that the President doesn't want to appoint the members of the board, because Parliament has not yet finished its processes.
The President appoints board members of the NYDA on the advice of Parliament, once Parliament has finished its process and submitted the list. Therefore, the process of appointing the board of the NYDA is still within the parliamentary system, and not in the Presidency or anywhere in government. Thank you. [Applause.]