Committee Report on National Youth Development Agency Strategic and Annual Performance Plans 2013

Meeting report

National Youth Development Agency Strategic and Annual Performance Plan 2013: Committee’s Report consideration and adoption
The Chairperson said that the draft report was divided into 11 sections, namely: introduction, mandate of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), strategic shift for the 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), key performance areas, overview of the budget for the 2013 MTEF, strategic outcomes and key performance areas, deliberations, observations and findings, recommendations, and conclusion.

Mr Tshepo Masoeu, Content Advisor: Standing Committee on Appropriations, read through the report from introduction to conclusion.

In terms of Section 10 (1) (c) of the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act (No. 9 of 2009), relevant members of Cabinet should table updated strategic plans for each Department, public entity or institution, and each plan should be referred to the relevant committee for consideration and report. The NYDA’s strategic plan, annual plan, and budget were tabled in Parliament on 23 April 2013. The NYDA’s revised strategic plan for 2013/18 and the revised annual performance plan were tabled on 15 May 2013. The revised documents were referred to the Standing Committee on Appropriations on 21 May 2013.

The NYDA was launched on 16 June 2009 and it was a national public entity funded by government. The aim of the NYDA was to tackle challenges faced by youth in South Africa. The socio-economic challenges faced by youth included poverty, inequality, unemployment and poor health. The NYDA wanted to play a leading role in ensuring that all stakeholders played a role in youth development. The NYDA was guided by the following legislative framework, namely: the National Youth Development Agency Act (No. 54 of 2008), the National Youth Policy and the draft Integrated Youth Development Strategy.

The NYDA’s strategic shifts for the 2013 MTEF focused on education and skills development as core areas of emphasis in the roll-out of its programmes in the 2013 MTEF. The vision of NYDA was to be a credible and capable development agency for south African youth; the NYDA’s mission was to mainstream youth issues into society to facilitate youth development with all sectors of society; and the values of NYDA were excellence, honesty and integrity, respect, care, punctuality, and timelines. The key strategic shifts for NYDA would be a comprehensive review of the NYDA’s goals, strategy and outcomes, and reduction of the key performance areas from ten to five to ensure more focused youth interventions.

The NYDA’s key performance areas included economic participation, education and skills development, policy research and development, health and wellbeing, governance and administration. The overview of the budget for the 2013 MTEF was summarised. The NYDA’s strategic outcomes and key performance areas included the following: improved and sustainable livelihood opportunities for young people in South Africa, improved enabling environment that promoted youth development in all sectors of south African society, improved participation of young people in social cohesion towards nation building, and to develop and improve a credible and capable NYDA.

The Committee’s deliberations included, amongst others: that the Committee welcomed the commitment of the board of NYDA to restore the image and credibility of the NYDA; the Committee was concerned about lack of awareness amongst youth about the NYDA; the Committee was of the view that the NYDA programmes needed to take into account the needs of young graduates; and the Committee was of the view that the NYDA needed to strengthen its partnership with institutions such as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) where young people could be channelled into technical and engineering branches.

After consideration of the strategic and annual performance plan and budget, the Standing Committee on Appropriations welcomed the new vision, mission and value statements and performance objectives of the NYDA as a positive direction towards reviving the image and credibility of the NYDA. However, it observed that the NYDA was not yet accessible to all young South Africans. The NYDA could be involved in partnerships that could be seen as partisan, but the Committee welcomed the partnerships that were transparent and open.

Having considered the NYDA’s strategic and annual performance plan and budget, the Standing Committee on Appropriations recommended that the NYDA develop a grant funding framework that provided a basis for transparency, fairness, and accountability in awarding of grant funding; the NYDA should be visible and accessible to all youth; the NYDA should put in place change management mechanisms and a rigorous performance management system to ensure efficiency and effectiveness; and the NYDA’s partnerships should be formed transparently.

In conclusion, having considered the NYDA’s strategic and annual performance plan and budget for the 2013/14 financial year, the Standing Committee on Appropriations supported the annual performance plan and budget of the NYDA for 2013/14 which formed part of Budget Vote 1: the Presidency.

Discussion
The Chairperson said that some of the paragraphs could be confusing, and he allowed Members to give comments and suggestions.

Dr S Van Dyk (DA) referred to section 2, mandate of the National Youth Development Agency, paragraph 2, and suggested that the words “funded by government” be changed to “funded by State”. He emphasised that every institution, agency and enterprise that was controlled by the national government had to be named state-owned institution, agency and enterprise. He then maintained that the “funded by government” be changed to “funded by State”. He asked for the distinction between government and state.

Mr J Gelderblom (ANC) noted that the word “government” had been used in the past, and it was important to continue using it. He maintained that the words “government” and “State” seemed to mean the same thing.

Ms R Mashigo (ANC) noted that National Youth Development Agency was part of the Presidency’s initiatives, and it was controlled by the Office of the Presidency. The National Youth Development Agency’s board was multiparty. She suggested that the words “funded by government” be changed to “funded by the Presidency”.

The Chairperson said that there was not really much of a difference between the words “State” and “government”. However, the Members needed to think about the definition of “the State” and of “the government”. He suggested that the words “funded by government” should not to be changed.

Mr M Swart (DA) said that he did not have a problem with the words “funded by the Government” because any entity that was under the control of government was referred to as government entity. He maintained that the word “government” was used in both local and provincial government.
 
Ms L Yengeni (ANC) said that there was a difference between State-owned enterprises and institutions. Therefore, NYDA could not be categorised as a state-owned enterprise.

Ms A Mfulo (ANC) referring to section 2, mandate of the National Youth Development Agency, paragraph 2, said that the word “established” from the sentence that started with “the institution” should be removed as it was repetition.

Ms Mashigo, referring to the draft report, noted that there had to be consistency in spelling. She found that the word “programmes” and “programs” had been used in the draft report. She suggested that the Committee should choose one word and use it consistently.
 
The Chairperson, referring to the section 3, strategic shifts for the 2013 MTEF, noted that the sentence “as from April 2012 a new board of the NYDA assumed office and undertook a firm commitment to the citizens of the country and the Honourable Deputy Minister: Mr Obed Bapela to restore the image and credibility of the NYDA” was too long and confusing. He suggested that the sentence be shortened.

Ms Mfulo, referring to section 6, overview of the budget for the 2013 MTEF, suggested that both the budget summary for the 2013 MTEF: table 1 and the paragraph that summarised table 1 should not be removed because they correlated.

Ms Mfulo, referring to section 7, strategic outcomes and key performance areas, wanted clarity on key performance indicators and key performance areas.

Mr Swart, referring to section 8, deliberations, paragraph 4, suggested that the word “at” be replaced by “about” in the sentence “The Committee was concerned at the NYDA’s pursuance of partnerships that may be favourable to one service provider over another in a competitive sector market”.

Mr Swart, referring to section 9, observations and findings, suggested that the word “however” should be removed from paragraph 9.6.

Mr Swart referred to section 10 and suggested that the word “should” be removed from all the recommendations.

In conclusion, Members agreed that the words “funded by government” would not be changed. The word “established” should be removed, as it was a repetition. The word “programmes” would be used consistently in the report. The sentence “as from April 2012 a new board of the NYDA assumed office and undertook a firm commitment to the citizens of the country and the Honourable Deputy Minister: Mr Obed Bapela to restore the image and credibility of the NYDA” was shortened to  “As from April 2012 a new board of the NYDA assumed office. Honourable Deputy Minister: Mr Obed Bapela will restore the image and credibility of the NYDA”. In section 8, the word “at” was replaced by the word “about”, and, in section 9, the word “however” was removed. In section 10, the word “should” was removed from all recommendations.

Mr Swart said that the DA was happy with the amendment to the report on the strategic plan and agreed that the report could be adopted. However, the DA did not support the existence of the NYDA because much money had been wasted, and the NYDA was not justifiable.

The ANC was happy with the report, as amended, and agreed that the report should be adopted.

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.