Truth distorted by government concerning Mpumalanga Youth Development Funds

Issued by Bosman Grobler MPL – Spokesperson on Finance & Economic Development
22 Sep 2022 in Press Releases

The DA has written to Jeaneth Thabethe, Deputy Speaker of the Mpumalanga Legislature, asking her to summon Economic Development MEC, Vusi Mkhatshwa, before the disciplinary committee for misleading the house in his response to DA parliamentary questions.

We asked MEC Mkhatshwa to respond on expenditure incurred for the Mpumalanga Youth Development Fund (MYDF) for the 2021/22 Financial Year. The MEC responded that R81.95 million was transferred to MEGA for disbursement to approved beneficiaries of the MYDF.

The funds were reportedly transferred in two trenches, as follows:

– The first batch R50.33 million was transferred to MEGA on 7 December 2021, for 44 beneficiaries.

– The second batch R31.62 million was transferred to MEGA on 15 March 2022, for 20 beneficiaries.

The response by MEC Mkhatshwa is contradicting the Office of the Premier who reported to the Portfolio committee on Premier’s Office, Finance, Economic Development and Tourism that they had realised a saving of R47 million under the MYDF, and consequently the saving would be rolled over to 2022/23 financial year. This literally means that only R43 million of the R90 million was transferred to MEGA.

MEGA’s own 3rd quarter report also contradicts the MEC’s response but confirms the report by the Premiers office (as MEGA states) that R43 million was allocated and R23 million was disbursed by Mid-December 2021.

The MEC continues to respond to the questions by playing semantics’ and confusing the payments of the MYDF for the financial years of 2021/22 and 2022/23 of the Premier’s Office’s failure to spend the budget allocated for the MYDF.

The DA calls on Jeaneth Thabethe, Chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee in the Legislature, to bring MEC Mkhatshwa before the disciplinary committee to explain why he felt it necessary to distort the truth in his responses to the Legislature – bringing the decorum of the August House into disrepute.