The National Youth Commission (NYC) is an expensive cash cow serving its own elite rather than the young people of South Africa, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. It has called for the NYC to be disbanded.
”The commission seems to be more about junkets for its members and their advancement, as opposed to the development of the youth,” DA representative on youth affairs Manny da Camara said in a statement.
The NYC has spent more than R140 000 on overseas trips during the 2000/01 financial year.
”These trips, the details of which were provided to me in reply to a parliamentary question to the Minister in the Presidency (Essop Pahad), seem entirely frivolous and marginal to the mandate of the NYC,” he said.
In addition, the NYC had spent nearly R45 000 on bursaries to its own employees to further their studies.
”The ANC government must explain how these expenses contribute to improving the lives of South Africa’s youth,” Da Camara said.
”Once again, this wasteful expenditure underlines the DA’s view that the commission is an expensive cash cow serving the NYC’s own elite, rather than the young people of South Africa.”
”The NYC should be disbanded.”
Its budget should be put to better use by spending it directly on young people in need of assistance, and not on a superfluous bureaucracy, Da Camara said. – Sapa