JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – National Freedom Party Youth Movement (NFPYM) calls for the current National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) board to be disbanded because it has failed.
“As the NFPYM, which represents the aspirations of thousands of young people in the country, we feel that there’s a pressing need for the current board of the NYDA to be disbanded because up until now, they have never delivered on promises they made to us as young people,” said NFPYM secretary-general Busi Tshabalala.
Tshabalala said when the board members took office, they made more promises but delivered none. Actually, the NYDA is neither visible nor active in townships and rural areas.
The only person who has made headlines is the current chair, Yeshen Pillay, who has come out in support of Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s statement that people under 40 years will not get RDP houses from the government. Other than that, the NYDA has been as silent on youth issues. Very few young people have benefited in any way whatsoever from the NYDA, she said.
Tshabalala said as the NFPYM, they were baffled by Pillay’s stance when he publicly supported the Minister.
“Supporting such a stance makes us realise that Pillay is only representing his type. Those that drink expensive wines and smoke cigars while the majority of us are struggling to get food, education, employment and shelter. These are the issues the NYDA should be grappling with, rather than just becoming toothless puppets.
“Actually, the only achievement for NYDA was to combine Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the Youth Commission. If the NYDA was serious about delivering on youth development, surely the NYDA Act would have been amended by now, because currently the NYDA is a unitary structure, which rely on MOU’s at provincial and local level. Pillay and the entire board is and should be disbanded.”
