Madam Deputy Speaker, the bottom line is we can't come here and pretend all is well. The President needs to appoint a board. Either he shapes up or ships out. [Interjections.]
Sixty percent of the people in this country are young people, and they are sitting there waiting for the President to offer direction and give hope, and he has failed to do so for seven months. Then adults, yourselves, come here and howl about a serious matter. Young people need hope. If you are saying young people must grow up, it must begin with the members of this House giving direction. That is what is needed. [Interjections.]
The NYDA cannot, under any circumstances, hope to move forward in the absence of a board. About R160 million was wasted on a festival in Johannesburg. Recently, we have been talking about wasteful expenditure on barriers and all sorts of other nonsense that you can think of. Yet, the President of this country is going all over everywhere else and failing to appoint a board. It speaks to failure of the highest order on the President's part. And because some of you are trying to allay anxieties about Mangaung, we expect you to give the impression that you are howling because you want to be reappointed to Cabinet after the conference. [Interjections.]
But the bottom line is, since 1998, these ad hoc approaches that you, as the ANC government, have put in place have not worked. That is why you disbanded the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the SA Youth Commission. Until you put together a youth Ministry, you are not taking youth development seriously in this country. What is it that people must do for government to take them seriously? They have done everything they had to do; yet, you are failing to appoint a board.
If you can't appoint a board, then I'm afraid that you can't do other things, because a board needs to be appointed and the major thing ... [Interjections.]