Hon Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members and guests in the gallery, I greet you all. The participation of youth in the struggle for the liberation of South Africa is well documented and remains vivid in the collective memory of the South African populace.
The establishment of the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, as a successor to the National Youth Commission, NYC, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and provincial youth commissions must be celebrated as a major milestone in our quest for sustainable youth development interventions. It is not surprising that there has been a continuation of the mobilisation of youth participation in the democratic order, both in government processes and civil society.
The establishment of the National Youth Development Agency should be viewed as a significant step towards realigning the youth development institutional framework to address the challenges facing our youth more effectively and aggressively. But how did we get here? We pose this question to give an account of the transformation of the landscape of youth development and to locate the mandate of the NYDA within the context of the youth development trajectory in South Africa.
The NYDA mandate is clear: It is to accelerate interventions on youth development and to ensure that our youth are both custodians and beneficiaries of our democracy.
In his state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma called on the NYDA to establish its structures throughout the country. The NYDA is already responding to the call by the President. They have advertised posts in all nine provinces for the establishment of provincial advisory boards.
The NYDA was established through an Act of Parliament, the National Youth Development Agency Act, Act 54 of 2008, and it was formed through the merger of the National youth commission and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. The NYDA derives its mandate from the legislative framework, including the National Youth Development Agency Act, the National Youth Policy of 2009 to 2014 and the draft integrated youth development strategy, as adopted by the Youth Convention of 2006. From these documents, there is an overarching theme that delineates the role of NYDA in that it has to initiate, implement, facilitate and monitor youth development interventions aimed at reducing youth unemployment and promoting social cohesion.
In achieving these goals, the NYDA is performing, among other things, the following responsibilities: To lobby and advocate for the integration and mainstreaming of youth development in all spheres of government, the private sector and civil society; to initiate, implement, facilitate and co- ordinate youth development programmes; and to monitor and evaluate youth development interventions across the board.
The National Youth Development Agency Act of 2008 closed a chapter on the national and provincial youth commissions, alongside the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, and ushered in a new era that builds on the successes of earlier interventions with a more focused and integrated approach, underpinned by a new sense of urgency, in order to ensure that South Africa's youth are an integral part of their sociopolitical and socioeconomic advancement.
The most important feature of the agency is its ability to integrate all youth development interventions. The institution exists as a single integrated entity in all spheres of government, and it is able to exert influence on the public sector, the private sector and civil society. This has been achieved through the instruments it has at its disposal to hold institutions in these sectors accountable for their interventions in advancing youth development.
On an annual basis, the agency publishes national youth development priorities, which should be implemented by all organs of state, the private sector and civil-society organisations concerned with youth development.
The founding legislation of the NYDA grants it significant regulatory powers over organs of state, the private sector and civil society in relation to matters that fall within the ambit of its mandate. All these sectors are required to submit reports to the agency reporting on how they have implemented these priorities and what progress has been made. The priorities are therefore serving as a yardstick to measure the extent to which the nation is making progress in youth development.
The NYDA hosted the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa for the first time, bringing together more than 15 000 young people from across the globe. Consistent with festival deliberations, the declaration was clear in condemning imperialist policies which attack the full development of education and young people, preventing them from accessing free and quality education. We defend and struggle for education as a public and social good, a universal human right, whose gratuity must be ensured by the state.
We must remember that the NYDA received an unqualified audit opinion in their first financial year. Despite the most negative criticism once again in the past financial year, the NYDA attained an unqualified audit opinion from an independent audit by the Auditor-General of the Republic of South Africa.
For the financial year 2010-11, the NYDA incurred expenditure to the value of R67 649 297 that was not in accordance with the requirements of the Treasury regulations. Of this irregular expenditure incurred, R26 million relates to expenditure incurred for the World Festival of Youth and Students. This was as a result of the late withdrawal by a service provider, who was awarded the contract for managing the World Federation of Democratic Youth festival on behalf of the NYDA. The second reason relates to having received a late commitment from funders to fund the activities of the festival.
It is important to note in this regard that the Auditor-General has satisfied himself that, other than the procurement processes not being followed, no misappropriation of the funds occurred and no other unbecoming conduct in relation to these expenses in question occurred. Thus, this remained a matter of emphasis without amending the clean audit opinion of the Auditor-General.
It should be noted that the due diligence conducted by the National Treasury on both the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the National Youth Commission recommended that the NYDA operate optimally and, to make it successful, it had to be capitalised by R600 million on an annual basis.
For the 2010-11 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework submission, the NYDA requested R930 million. However, the organisation was allocated R370 million, which is 39% less than the recommended amount. The organisation was allocated a budget of R385 million for the 2011-12 MTEF. This has not discouraged the NYDA from doing what is most needed by the youth of South Africa. The audit report received speaks volumes. The NYDA also continues to engage with various stakeholders for more funding.
Perhaps it is important to reflect on some of the key functional areas of the NYDA. With its limited resources, the NYDA has worked hard to ensure that our youth are trained to take advantage of today's opportunities and are integrated into the mainstream economy to create opportunities for others. Many young people have been assisted since the NYDA's establishment, including 7 593 loans that were disbursed to microfinance enterprises to the value of R23 million; the disbursing of small and medium enterprise loans to the value of R3 057 354; the disbursing of 4 224 business consultancy services vouchers to the value of R33 467 520; and engaging 16 093 young people under the National Youth Service programme.
The agency has disbursed 10 021 microfinance loans worth R28,8 million, and small and medium enterprise loans valued at over R24,6 million. It has issued 4 220 business consultancy services vouchers worth over R33 million.
The NYDA has assisted young entrepreneurs to access business opportunities worth R77,6 million. A total of 33 008 jobs were created for young people by programmes of the NYDA. These jobs were created through programmes such as micro, small and medium enterprise financing, the National Youth Service, business consultancy services, jobs and mentorships.
A total of 39 813 beneficiaries were enrolled in skills development and community service programmes. The National Youth Service programme has enrolled 16 093 young people in a number of projects. Most recently, in the 2010-11 financial year, young volunteers built 76 houses for indigent families, symbolising the year 1976. A total of 152 342 young people were provided with information on products and services through NYDA branches.
The 2007 ANC Polokwane conference resolved that government should progressively introduce free education ... [Interjections.]