The chairman of the National Youth Development Agency, Yershen Pillay, says he is not worried by allegations that he squandered thousands of rands of the agency's money while he was its deputy chairman in 2011.
Speaking at a hearing of the National Assembly's standing committee on appropriations yesterday, he downplayed the public protector's preliminary investigation of his activities and said he wanted to know why he was being investigated at this time.
Pillay said he would continue to "clean up" the embattled youth development agency.
He said it was surprising that allegations of misusing the agency's money had not surfaced until shortly after the suspension of agency CEO Steven Ngubeni two weeks ago on charges of financial misconduct.
Allegations of credit card fraud against Pillay emerged in the same week that the board suspended Ngubeni.
Obed Bapela, deputy minister of performance monitoring and evaluation in The Presidency, said the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, had not launched a full investigation of Pillay but had merely asked for clarity on the allegations against him.
Bapela said the agency's board was still to decide on the fate of its COO, Magdalene Moonsamy.
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