“It can't be that SOEs become retirement areas where anyone who has gone into retirement is fetched to take responsibility for them. From boards to the executive, they must be given to young people who have been trained and are ready to take over because it is their future, and they will not agree to privatisation.”
Malatji also slammed the Treasury for recently introducing budget cuts.
“The Treasury department must urgently act. If it fails to act, those responsible for that department must step aside and allow progressive people to take the country forward. We can't sit back and watch the Treasury used as a tool to take the ANC out of power. We know some of them are not progressive and the decisions indicate they will never make any pro-poor programmes.”
He criticised the recent budget cuts announced for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
“We are clear as the youth league that we are fighting for free, compulsory university education. The ANCYL rejects the NSFAS budget cuts and urges the National Treasury to reprioritise budget cuts away from health and education.
“The biggest problem we have is a corrupt, suspended and useless CEO who introduced systems that later affected students.
“In the middle of the crisis we are in, we can't have a progressive government that is biased to the poor and the working class which implements budget cuts in areas like the NSFAS. Most black South Africans benefit from the financial aid scheme. When you cut from their budget, you are simply saying the kids from the poorest of the poor must not have access to education.”
Malatji called on the Treasury to reverse the NSFAS budget cuts and instead increase its coffers to benefit more students.
TimesLIVE
SOEs, regressive Treasury to blame for SA’s problems, says ANCYL’s Malatji
Politics reporter
Image: Supplied
ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji believes the root of the country's problems lies in the collapse of state-owned entities (SOEs) and a regressive National Treasury.
“We have seen the collapse of state-owned entities. These are mainly created for a clear developmental agenda and to change the lives of our people, especially those who are affected by the injustices of the past,” he said.
“We've seen the delay in the appointment of the CEO of Eskom, the same Eskom that made the president cut his trip short because of an energy crisis in the country, and you delay appointing a CEO?”
Malatji said all entities should be placed under one department or SOE holding company as per the resolutions of the ANC 2022 national conference.
“We are calling on the president to act on that because it is clear that where they are placed, they are not performing. We cannot allow the collapse of state-owned entities in the interest of privatisation. This is against ANC resolutions. They must be given to young people to drive. We can't say we are the future of this country but we are unable to drive organs of the state that must change the lives of our people.”
The ANCYL leader said they would not allow young people to be sidelined in the running and functioning of SOEs.
“It can't be that SOEs become retirement areas where anyone who has gone into retirement is fetched to take responsibility for them. From boards to the executive, they must be given to young people who have been trained and are ready to take over because it is their future, and they will not agree to privatisation.”
Malatji also slammed the Treasury for recently introducing budget cuts.
“The Treasury department must urgently act. If it fails to act, those responsible for that department must step aside and allow progressive people to take the country forward. We can't sit back and watch the Treasury used as a tool to take the ANC out of power. We know some of them are not progressive and the decisions indicate they will never make any pro-poor programmes.”
He criticised the recent budget cuts announced for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
“We are clear as the youth league that we are fighting for free, compulsory university education. The ANCYL rejects the NSFAS budget cuts and urges the National Treasury to reprioritise budget cuts away from health and education.
“The biggest problem we have is a corrupt, suspended and useless CEO who introduced systems that later affected students.
“In the middle of the crisis we are in, we can't have a progressive government that is biased to the poor and the working class which implements budget cuts in areas like the NSFAS. Most black South Africans benefit from the financial aid scheme. When you cut from their budget, you are simply saying the kids from the poorest of the poor must not have access to education.”
Malatji called on the Treasury to reverse the NSFAS budget cuts and instead increase its coffers to benefit more students.
TimesLIVE
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