Premier Lesufi’s Gauteng government blocks ActionSA’s attempt to gain access to Nasi Ispani employment documents

7 September 2023

The Gauteng Provincial Government, led by Premier Panyaza Lesufi, this week rejected ActionSA’s application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) duly and lawfully requesting to gain access to the hiring documents of all those hired through the Nasi Ispani “job” scheme.

From the outset, ActionSA has maintained that the Nasi Ispani scheme is nothing more than a PR exercise by Premier Lesufi to appear as if he is addressing the high unemployment caused by his very own ruling party in the province, which was intended as a tool to hire ANC cadres to campaign for them in the upcoming 2024 elections.

If the Premier and the province had nothing to hide, in terms of who was employed through the scheme, why would they be unwilling to provide ActionSA and the Gauteng public with the necessary documentation to prove that ANC cadres weren't hired solely on the basis of their party-political affiliation?

As announced during our press conference in July, ActionSA will now file an internal appeal as provided for by PAIA to ensure that the ANC does not abuse the scheme for its own nefarious ends.

ActionSA is fully aware that Premier Lesufi and the ruling party are desperate to retain control of the province which they are likely to lose after years of poor governance and would therefore take desperate action to maintain control.

Of the more than 1.2 million people who applied to the Nasi Ispani scheme, 950 000 South African youth were not considered which is why ActionSA believes it is important to ensure that the Gauteng Government and ruling party should not be allowed to abuse the scheme.

As a party that believes in economic prosperity and justice for all, ActionSA welcomes any initiative aimed at addressing the crisis of youth unemployment in our province which currently stands at 63.9%.

However, since the start of Lesufi’s dubious Nasi Ispani programme, we maintain that it was a cosmetic exercise attempting to show the ANC-led Gauteng Provincial Government at work, when, in fact, it has dismally failed the youth of this province.

ActionSA believes that Gauteng’s unemployment rate – where more than two million people are unemployed – won’t be solved by gimmick schemes such as Nasi Ispani, but through creating the environment for private businesses to create jobs. We look forward to unpacking our solutions to solve the country’s abysmal unemployment rate at our inaugural policy conference from 12 -14 September 2023.

We simply won’t allow the ANC and Lesufi to fool our people into thinking that they are doing anything meaningful to address the unemployment crisis while they are actually just hiring their own cadres, and we are therefore following all possible channels to demand transparency and accountability in this regard.

Issued by Funzi Ngobeni, ActionSA Gauteng Chairperson, 7 September 2023