THE National Assembly’s port portfolio committee on women, youth and people with disabilities, as well as the Select Committee on Health and Social Services, met on Tuesday to discuss the appointment of board members of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
The committees have jointly written to parliament’s Speaker Thandi Modise to ask for clear terms of reference for the process before it gets under way.
After considering the advice and the legal opinion from the Office of the Speaker and the recommendation from the National Assembly Programme Committee (NAPC), the two committees resolved to restart the process of appointment of the NYDA Board members.
This is in response to the NAPC instruction that the committees’ resolution has to be adopted by the House for effectiveness.
The agency has been without a board since May 2020.
The National Assembly’s programming committee agreed last month to restart the entire process after complaints submitted to speaker 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,” Modise said in January.
Six of the seven names were of known ANC-aligned candidates.
Some people were not happy with the recommendation of Sifiso Mahlangu as chairman as they want the entity to be chaired by a woman, namely Nonceba Mhlauli, who is the spokesperson for the Minister in the presidency.
Others complained about the inclusion of former Jacob Zuma’s daughter, Thuthukile, as a board member.
The agency, which is responsible for providing employment opportunities for millions of young people in the country, has been without a functioning board for over a year now.
(Source: INSIDE POLITICS)