ANCYL President Collen Malatji
ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji has defended its treasurer, General Zwelo Masilela, after revelations that he worked as a senior researcher in the Mbombela municipality for five years without a post-matric qualification, saying “It’s nothing new and it happens all the time”.
On Wednesday, parliament interviewed candidates who applied for positions on the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) board.
During the interviews, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) member Sihle Lonzi questioned Masilela about how he was hired as a senior researcher without the necessary qualifications.
According to Masilelas’s CV, he worked at the municipality from 2016 to 2023. This is despite him saying in his CV that he completed his diploma in journalism in 2021.
Masilela said he had not applied for a senior researcher position because he knew he did not qualify for, adding that he also raised concerns about being given the job.
“I had to put the CV as accurately as possible because I did not want to mislead anybody of the positions I occupied. I never applied to be a senior researcher, I applied to be a personal assistant working in the office of the chief whip,” he said.
“Because I was deployed in a political office, there was a movement; they just placed me as a senior researcher and I could not say no, I don’t qualify … I spent two years without being given proper functions in that responsibility and that was not my problem but the problem of the municipality.”
Responding to questions during a media briefing in Luthuli House on Thursday, Malatji said those who have been employed in a political office will know that Masilela’s situation was nothing new.
“It happens all the time with the movement of people in the structure and he has declared it. So it is not something that was hidden,” he said.
“He complained formally that this responsibility you have given me is not in line with what I applied for.”
Lonzi filed a complaint on Thursday with the public protector against the NYDA, Masilela and the Mbombela municipality.
Malatji called the complaint a populist stunt, adding that the EFF was “playing to the gallery” and viewed this as a political opportunity to deal with the youth league treasurer general.
“The EFF is the last organisation to speak about corruption but the public protector is a good institution. They must go there and do whatever so they can investigate; we are clear that they will get the right answers.”
Malatji also weighed in on AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement about their latest visit to the United States and asking the government to take action against South Africa, claiming that Afrikaners were being persecuted.
He said the Afrikaners were the biggest beneficiaries of land theft in South Africa, and if Afriforum was not interested in working with South Africans to unite the nation, they were free to go to the US.
“Afrikaners have nowhere else to go; there are a lot of Afrikaners who do not associate with AfriForum anymore. The only place where Afrikaners are free to exist in the world is in South Africa; there are no Afrikaners in the US.”
He said many Afrikaners do not agree with what AfriForum is doing, and called on them to fight for a non-racial society.
“AfriForum must not be used to pit blacks and whites against each other. If they want to work with us, they must come and engage the youth league, they must not run to the USA.
“They must come and engage us on how we can restructure, and redistribute the land while they also assist us in rebuilding the economy to benefit the majority. If they do love South Africa they must play a role to assist us to resolve the socio-economic problems caused by apartheid which they are beneficiaries of.”