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MPs lower the bar for NYDA

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ANC MPs who sit in the special committee established to appoint a new board of the National Development Youth Agency (NYDA) argued against including a tertiary qualification being a requirement for potential board members.

The matter was discussed by the committee as it was drafting an advert calling for applications to the powerful statutory youth empowerment body yesterday.

Not only would a post-matric qualification as a requirement go against the law, but it would be discriminatory to many young people with no tertiary qualification but who want to lead the multimillion-rand statutory youth agency, according to the ANC.

The ANC MPs were supported by Parliament’s content advisors who argued that the law – the National Youth Development Agency Act – does not stipulate or prescribe academic requirement for a would-be board member.

The committee has since November last year advertised three times for the new NYDA board, calling on young people with a minimum of a three year post-matric qualification to apply.

Yesterday, Julius Ngoepe, the committee’s content advisor who is responsible for a rough draft of the advert, said they had avoided a situation whereby they called for qualifications which the Act does not prescribe, adding that the law is “silent” on qualifications.

ANC MP Bongani Mkongi said there were lots of arguments which are moral and historical that could be made in relation to the advert and the Act.

“One of the fundamental examples to most of us that are coming from the student movement in South Africa; the thorny point of our unemployed youth is that they are not being employed because they are told of experience.

“We have been fighting this battle for many years: where are young people going to get experience if we are not giving them opportunity when they finish their schooling or matric?”

Mkongi said “the exclusivity” at public and private institutions is a problem. Young people have to be placed at particular work places where they can gain the experience.

Like other ANC MPs, Mkongi suggested that the advert be put out without the academic requirement, adding that such “silent issues” be dealt with at a later stage. They however agreed to get legal opinion on the matter.

Another ANC MP said the committee should not deviate from but be consistent with the Act. “We have to be consistent and not put a criteria that seeks to exclude the majority of our young people when this board seeks to empower and to ensure development of the young people ...”

The MP said if the advert was put out with the requirement for a tertiary qualification, it would discriminate against certain young people.

Opposition MPs disagreed.

EFF MP Floyd Shivambu said the committee should not underestimate the importance of having people who have got at least one form of post-matric qualification to be the ones that are considered to serve in the board because it deals with “extremely complex issues”.

Shivambu said, because the NYDA also operates as some form of a development finance institution – which must deal with risks, remunerations of the executive and staff members and provincial advisory boards – it cannot be correct that it is open for everyone, with no age limit and no sense of academic qualification.

Shivambu said he hoped that the committee wouldn’t merely rubber stamp a caucus position. “Let’s be open and transparent and deal with these issues and judge them on merit. Even when people want to challenge this process, we can all agree it was above board.”

National Freedom Party’s Sibusiso Mncwabe warned that in as much as the committee did not want to discriminate against young people, legislators and Parliament have a responsibility to professionalise the agency.

“Remember the history of this institution, it had bad financial reports and is now taking a good shape. If we are going to say we are not including things that are going to assist ... will give us a problem. “I don’t think adding that we need someone with a post-matric certificate becomes illegitimate,” he added.

The African Independent Congress’s Steven Jafta supported Mncwabe, saying the qualification should be a requirement.

City Press reported on Sunday that the ANC Youth League wants its deputy president Dennis Moela, who does not possess a tertiary qualification, to chair the board.


Andisiwe Makinana
Parliamentary journalist
City Press
p:+27 11 713 9001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: Andisiwe.Makinana@citypress.co.za
      
 
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