EFF’s Sihle Lonzi submits Swelo Masilela and Thamsanqa Mahlangu as mamaparas of the week at NYDA interviews

by Nomonde Simelane

President of Julius Malema’s EFF Student Command Sihle Lonzi is the current talk of the town in the political space, after holding a meticulous clinic on how to expose an unsuspecting comrade during the NYDA interviews.

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) is a government agency that was established to tackle the youth development issues plaguing South Africa, including the insanely high rate of youth unemployment. To keep the agency as effective as possible, periodic interviews are held to appoint new board members who will be responsible for overseeing the agency’s operations, while fulfilling the instruction to support the youth and tackle the issues they face.

A parliamentary committee has been conducting interviews to select the incoming board members, and the EFF’s Sihle Lonzi was evidently not there to take it easy on anyone, as he exposed some candidates’ lack of readiness and competence to take over as board members. His first victim was an unsuspecting Thamsanqa Mahlangu, a direct product of the ANC’s comrade deployment policy, as per the EFF’s Julius Malema.

His failure to answer Sihle’s simple question, which requested him to outline and give practical examples as to how the NYDA policies and programmes align with the legal framework outlined in the NYDA act(Act 54 of 2008), has left social media users embarrassed on Thamsanqa’s behalf, as the sight was nothing short of cringy when he struggled to put his thoughts together cohesively.

His second victim was the ANC’s Swelo Masilela, a potential incoming NYDA Chairperson, whose post-matric qualifications were questioned by Sihle. The EFF member sought to get clarity as to how Swelo, who has clarified that he obtained his diploma in journalism from Tshwane University in 2021, was able to secure a position as a senior researcher at Mbombela Municipality. According to Sihle, this means that Swelo occupied his position as senior researcher for five years without the required post-matric qualifications, leaving much to be questioned in this regard.

This was nothing short of a performance from the EFF’s Sihle Lozi, one that social media users have labelled as necessary as they raise eyebrows at the ANC. According to these users, members such as Sihle are pertinent in these structures as they reveal the corruption that has constantly been swept under the rug.

Other users have connected the dots, revealing that the failure of most municipalities and local governments does not come as a surprise, rather, it is a direct consequence of incompetent and corrupt people such as Thamsanqa and Swelo taking up important roles without the necessary skills and competencies. These users highlight that once appointed, these figures are in over their heads and can’t attend to the simplest issues such as cutting grass and fixing potholes because they are not aware of their scope of work.

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