By Thys Khiba
Mahikeng – The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West province has rejected the budget vote speech presented by the Premier of the province, Prof. Job Mokgoro on Thursday.
The Chief Whip of the DA in the province, Freddy Sonakile has accused Mokgoro of depriving young people development opportunities during their month.
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) in North West today rejected the budget vote presented by Premier Job Mokgoro, for, among other things, cancelling the Youth Entrepreneurship Services (YES) Programme and Provincial Bursary Scheme amid Youth Month,” said Sonakile.
According to the DA Chief Whip, Sonakile, the aim of the mentioned programmes, was meant to fund emerging small businesses managed by young people and also to support underprivileged youth to further their studies.
“Although it will now be up to each department to develop its own youth development programmes, there are no clear guidelines on how this will be implemented or if it will be prioritised,” said Sonakile.
Sonakile says it is irresponsible for the provincial government to ‘scrap’ such vital programmes amid high rates of youth unemployment.
This follows the published first Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which indicates that there is an increase in youth unemployment which overshadows gains in some industries. The Stats SA confirmed that there is a large decrease in employment between quarter four of 2020 and quarter one of 2021.
“It is disappointing that the Provincial Government will fight tooth and nail to hold on to bankrupt entities such as Northwest Transport Investment (NTI) and North West Development Corporation (NWDC), but does not take the empowerment of youth seriously,” said Sonakile.
Sonakile reiterated that the youth are the future and further advised the African National Congress to partner with young people to build a sustainable future, instead of cultivating a youth dependent on state grants.
During his budget vote presentation, Mokgoro refuted claims that his office cancelled the Premier’s Bursary Fund.
“Let me take this opportunity to address a false perception that the Office of the Premier has cancelled the Premier’s Bursary Fund, Kgetsi Ya Tsie. The Bursary Fund has not been cancelled. What we have done, given the budgetary constraints imposed by Covid-19, we had to reduce the overall budget of the Office. This was the case with all Departments nationally and provincially,” said Prof. Mokgoro.
According to Prof. Mokgoro, the bursary funding is still continuing for all students and young people who were previously allocated bursaries.
“To show our commitment to this programme, and to demystify the false perception about the Bursary Fund, we will in July 2021 advertise for bursary allocations in the academic year 2022,” said Mokgoro.
The office of the Premier indicated that they are to date, sponsoring 133 bursary beneficiaries for 2021 academic year admitted in different Universities in South Africa.
source: free state central news