Barely two weeks after pleading for an increased budget allocation from National Treasury, the two top officials of the National Youth Development Agency (Nyda) have taken a trip to the US.
But they won’t say what exactly they’re doing there or who’s footing the bill.
On Monday, Nyda board chairperson Sifiso Mtsweni told his followers on Facebook that he would, along with the agency’s chief executive, Khathu Ramukumba, jet off to Chicago to meet civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his PUSH movement.
Mtsweni had previously demanded that Nyda’s annual budget, currently standing at R440 million, be increased, saying R158m of that went to salaries.
Nyda spokesperson Lerato Gambu said the agency had been invited by PUSH.
“PUSH has invited the National Youth Development Agency as a means to forge relations between the two organisations with a specific focus on youth development programmes, especially around youth entrepreneurship.
“The Nyda seeks to expand its grant funding programme and has vowed to work with different partners to increase its base to support wider reach of SMMEs,” said Gambu.
But Young Communist League of South Africa spokesperson Molaudi wa Sekake was scathing about the trip, describing it as a “disgrace”.
“The Nyda board has just been appointed. We’re waiting for them to outline programmes for youth but this is a continuation of a decadent lifestyle. If they were to get any views from young people, none of those views would be to visit celebrities in the US,” said Sekake.
DA Youth leader and MP Yusuf Cassim was scathing, saying the trip was not surprising.
“This is what happens when the process of selecting board members is premised on patronage and ANC factional politics,” he said.