MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
IFPYB: NYDA Abusing TaxPayers' Money
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It has come to the attention of the NEC of the IFP Youth Brigade that the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema and the Young Communist League National Secretary Buti Manamela, have been invited to be guest speakers at the first Southern African Regional Meeting of the Pan African Youth Union which starts in Johannesburg today. We are of the opinion that by giving these two youth leaders the platform to address the conference, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) will abusing taxpayers' money to promote the political agenda of the ruling party, instead of using this platform to promote a national and Southern African youth agenda. It is a well-known fact that the predecessor of the NYDA, the National Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund failed, because it ended up being little more than a patronage scheme for ANC comrades. It now appears that the NYDA is set to repeat the same mistakes of the previous government's youth initiatives. The IFPYB believes that the blurring of the boundary between the state and the ruling party is not only unacceptable, but is increasingly threatening our young democracy. We have requested an explanation from the Chairperson of the NYDA Andile Lungisa and the Minister in The Presidency: Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation and Administration, Mr Collins Chabane, as to why Mr Malema and Mr Manamela, who are not government officials, will be given the opportunity to address this Southern African youth conference. Furthermore, IFPYB NEC has called on the NYDA to remove both Mr Malema and Mr Manamela as speakers from the program. We must demand that the NYDA spend their R1-billion budget of taxpayers' money to promote opportunities for all South African youth and not only those aligned to ANC and its alliance partners. Equally, we must demand from the NYDA, which is a government organisation and not a wing of the ANC youth league, to act in a non-partisan manner at all times so as to build a united youth and country. Issued by: |