ANC Youth League leader accuses Treasury of being anti-South African

African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji has criticised the National Treasury for the lack of funding towards programmes aimed at creating employment opportunities for young people.

Malatji was speaking in a media briefing held at the Albert Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Malatji blamed the National Treasury for failing to fund programmes that would create jobs for the youth.

He even accused the government institution of working with “those that want to take the ANC out of power”.

“Everything that the Treasury does is anti-South African.”

‘Little room for hope’

The ANCYL leader also lamented the current state of South Africa’s youth, saying it was “disheartening” and “demoralising”.

He suggested that the future was looking bleak for young people in the country.

“When situations are getting worse, there’s little room for hope,” he said.

Malatji listed the high levels of crime, unemployment, substance abuse, poverty and the lack of access of higher educations as some of the problems plaguing young people, and called for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intervention.

“We demand that we expand the Public Procurement Bill, aiming to enforce a transformation of the youth through the involvement of small businesses because any big economy in the world is mainly driven by small businesses. We are saying as the ANC Youth League that we are re-emphasising our position on industrialisation as an important tool for job creation, as an important tool to open for the youth of this country to fully participate in their economic activities of their own country.”

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The ANCYL leader called on the private sector to “not sit back and watch”.

“We are saying the private sector must play a very crucial role in the creation of employment for the youth and business opportunities because we have seen that a lot of private companies utilise illegal foreigners to exploit them in the middle of the high level of unemployment of the youth. We are saying the Department of Labour and Employment must be able to set up clear systems to make sure that all employment opportunities are given to the youth.

“We are aware that a lot of [instances where] companies in South Africa [employ one person for a job that requires 10 people]. Those are part of the programmes that we believe that the Department of Labour must wake up and discipline the private sector because for the longest time we have not been able to discipline the private sector to play an important role in this country.”

Watch the briefing below:

‘Enough is enough’

Malatji also urged the Department of Higher Education to prioritise its funds towards upskilling young people through tertiary studies.

“We can’t have a lot of young people roaming the street when there’s budget being taken back to Treasury. Those departments which are not spending their budget on youth development, we are calling on the president to urgently act on them. Enough is enough.”

He expressed concern over the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) budget cuts amid the fight for “a free compulsory education”.

The ANCYL leader further called out the institution’s former “corrupt” and “useless” CEO Andile Nongogo, who was fired in October, for introducing “systems that later affected the students”.

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“The corruption at Nsfas is an enemy of the people of South Africa. You can’t steal from people who have nothing already. When we are told that there were bogus accounts of people who were claiming to be students receiving money from Nsfas and there’s no arrests then it’s a problem. Those who are found wanting must be immediately arrested and move away from Nsfas. We are saying the Minister of Higher Education must stop sleeping on duty. We don’t want excuses when it comes to people who steal from the youth of South Africa.”