Process to appoint National Youth Development Agency board to be restarted

Parliament is set to restart the process to recruit a new National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) board due to what it says was the questionable process followed in recommending people last year. 

The agency has been without a board since May 2020.

The National Assembly's programming committee agreed on Thursday to restart the entire process after complaints submitted to speaker Thandi Modise about the selection process.

“Public outcry is high, tensions within the committee and among the two houses have been rising. It isn't that we have all been happy about it,” said Modise.

She told MPs parliament had received a number of complaints from those who said the process followed by the National Assembly's portfolio committee on women, youth and people with disabilities and the National Council of Provinces' (NCOP) select committee on health and social services, working jointly, was not fair.

There were also complaints from those who said the process was fair, they were nominated and demanded to be appointed, she said.

The parliament committees, working jointly, announced names of successful applicants at the beginning of August last year. Six of the seven names were of known ANC-aligned candidates.

A leaked letter addressed to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, signed by ANC National Youth Task Team convener Tandi Mahambehlala, and which listed recommended names for the board, also strengthened the suspicions of political interference.

But even before the committees announced the names, questions were being asked about the integrity of the process, including that it had not been transparent in how it shortlisted candidates for interviews and after the interview process.

Modise told MPs on Thursday: “We have been tested really on this matter. We are still getting a lot of flak over this.

“If I had it my way, I would start this process all over so that everybody is satisfied that there was openness, there was fairness and so that people who performed well get a chance to prove that in fact they got in because they performed and those who were left out can see why they were left out.”

Modise said after receiving complaints and investigating, they found that the end result was not reflective of the people of SA.

“What struck us was that there were categories of communities in SA which were not reflected.

“We then assumed that the committee would be able to give us a good explanation. The report went to the house and the house sent the report back to the committee,” she said.

Modise said she would like to see any structure that parliament comes up with, being reflective of the seriousness that the legislature has taken to come up with the product. “The structure has to reflect who we are as a country,” she said.

House chairperson responsible for oversight, Cedric Frolick said parliament's legal advisers had also recommended that it would be in the best interest of parliament to restart the process.

The EFF has called for the chairpersons of the two committees to be held to account, especially because of the money that was spent in the disputed process.

“We can't restart the process and there is no consequences for individuals who ran the unfair process,” said EFF MP Natasha Ntlangwini.

The NYDA was established primarily to tackle challenges faced by the youth.

With a total budget of R545m — of which 37% is spent on salaries — and the power to dispense project money, it is a highly contested agency.

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