Home South African Parliament calls for public comment on new NYDA board candidates

Parliament calls for public comment on new NYDA board candidates

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Parliament has given the public an opportunity to make written comments on about 1,000 candidates nominated to serve on the board of the NYDA.

PARLIAMENT has given the public an opportunity to make written comments on about 1,000 candidates nominated to serve on the board of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

This after the sub-committee of the portfolio committee on women, youth and people with disabilities and the select committee on health and social services on Tuesday placed the CVs of the candidates on the parliamentary website.

Parliament received about 1,000 applications after its call for nominations for the appointment of NYDA board members as at April 9.

Instead of the usual short-listing of the about 30 candidates for interviews and then asking for public comment, the sub-committee went for the public comments from the word go on all of the about 1,000 applicants.

“The sub-committee invites the public and civil society to make comments on the candidates’ CVs. The closing date for comments from members of the public and civil society is June 5, 2021,” committee chairpersons Nonhlanhla Ncube-Ndaba and Maurencia Gillion said.

Those wishing to make comments can access the CVs at https://tinyurl.com/pd5wzf25.

The search for board members follows a decision by the National Assembly to restart the nomination process in February.

The appointment stalled last September after the National Assembly sent back the report recommending the candidates to serve on the board to the committee for further consideration.

This was after National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise received complaints on the selection process that was followed by the committee amid legal threats in some quarters.

Modise later received a legal opinion which recommended that the process to appoint the board be restarted from scratch.

The NYDA selection process was mired in controversy amid the surfacing of a letter purported to be from the interim ANC Youth League task team forwarding a list of preferred candidates, including some of those recommended, to the office of ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte prior to the interviews.

Only two of those who were shortlisted, former Young Communist League spokesperson Molaoli Sekake and Paballo Ponoane, who is the volunteer assistant to the ANC Women’s League Gauteng secretary, have re-applied.

Those who did not re-apply or were not nominated include the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, Thuthukile Zuma, political analyst Lukhona Mnguni, former NYDA board chairperson Sifiso Mtsweni and Avela Mjajubana, a community outreach officer in the Office of Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu and former Sasco president as well as former Tshwane University SRC president Karabo Mohale.

There are seven board vacancies that will be filled following a parliamentary process that will include interviews by MPs.

Those appointed will hold office for a period of three years.

They will be tasked with managing the operational policy of the NYDA and exercise control over its powers and execution of its function.

The aspirant board members should be South Africans that are not unrehabilitated, insolvent or been convicted and imprisoned without the option of a fine, among others.

They should not have been removed from an office of trust as a result of improper conduct, among other requirements.

Political Bureau

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