NYDA conference: DA calls on President, businesses to boycott festival
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on President Zuma, along with government departments, state-owned corporations and private sector businesses, not to attend the nine-day World Festival of Youth and Students to be hosted by the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) next month. The President's attendance at such an event will serve to legitimise both the squandering of public funds, given that almost R30 million has been allocated to the NYDA to host the controversial festival, and the undemocratic, repressive and totalitarian regimes with which the event is associated.
The festival is an international gathering organised jointly by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, a radical youth organisation, and the International Union of Students. Member parties of the World Federation of Democratic Youth include the youth league of the Workers Party of North Korea as well as Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF Youth League.
Past festivals have been held in states notorious for suppression of basic democratic freedoms and human rights abuses. Previous host cities include Havana, Cuba; Caracas, Venezuela; and Pyongyang, North Korea. That the Presidency has allocated almost R30 million of state funds to an event that is not only associated with repressive regimes, but which will make little tangible contribution to the cause of youth development for which the NYDA was established, is a matter of deep concern.
The DA calls on President Zuma not to attend the festival. Furthermore, the DA calls on government departments, state-owned corporations and private sector businesses that have been invited to contribute to the NYDA's coffers by purchasing exhibition space, to abstain from doing so.
The DA will be submitting Parliamentary questions to establish which companies have signed up as exhibitors or sponsors, and which, if any, government departments and parastatals have been approached.
We will also be reiterating our calls for President Zuma to disband the NYDA, an entity which appears to have been created for the sole purpose of pandering to the ANC Youth League. If the Zuma administration is serious about the plight of the nation's youth, the R400 million annual budget allocated to the NYDA should be reassigned to much more worthy initiatives that will make a real difference to young South Africans - especially those who are unemployed and living in poverty. Such initiatives include the wage subsidy proposal and instituting a zero-rating of VAT on books .
Statement issued by Athol Trollip, MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, November 22 2010
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