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Chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency, Yershen Pillay, will serve a third term as a member of that entity’s board of directors.
Pillay’s is one of seven names that have been recommended for appointment by a Parliament ad hoc committee that was established to appoint the agency’s board.
The three-year term of the current board ends tomorrow.
Pillay is the chair of the outgoing board and is credited for turning that institution around. He is also the chairperson of the Young Communist League.
Others who made it into the final seven are Bavelile Hlongwa, Thembinkosi Josophu, Ndumiso Mokako, Naledi Maponopono, Zandile Majozi and Thulani Tshefuta, an ANC youth league member who is also the president of the South African Youth Council.
With the exception of Majozi, who is a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party, all the other candidates are members of the ANC youth league.
The seven names will have to be approved by a sitting of Parliament and the appointment will be made by President Jacob Zuma.
The ad hoc committee surprisingly omitted the current deputy chairperson, Kenny Morolong, from reappointment.
Morolong was appointed to the NYDA board three years ago and Zuma made him the executive deputy chairperson of the agency.
ANC MP Boingotlo Nthebe announced during the committee’s meeting today that Morolong would no longer be considered.
“We also had the privilege to scan through the CVs of candidates yesterday. Based on the agreement that we had in the past, we must agree that the fourth name [Morolong] must not go through the committee,” he said.
Another ANC MP, Mohapi Mohapi, explained that Morolong did not have a post-matric qualification, which was one of the requirements to be on the board.
“We can also be proud of the quality of candidates that we are recommending to the president,” said chairperson of the ad hoc committee, Phil Mapulane, as he concluded the process.
Early this month, Mapulane revealed that 131 applications were received for the seven spots in the board.
The committee, which has been meeting during the ongoing Parliament’s recess, interviewed 12 potential candidates yesterday. It retained two board members from the outgoing board in Pillay and Majozi.
The NYDA was established in 2009 to be a single, unitary structure, to address youth development issues at national, provincial and local government level.
The body was imbued in controversy in its early years, especially with concerns over financial mismanagement.
It came under heavy criticism in 2010 and opposition political parties called for its disbandment when it spent R106 million on global youth festival – which was widely referred to as a “kissing festival” because delegates were seen playing “kissing games” while waiting for sessions to begin.
