DURBAN - THE R1.7 million price tag for a three-day youth summit organised by the eThekwini Municipality faced criticism with opposition parties saying the Metro could ill afford to spend millions on “vanity projects”.
The city revealed during an executive committee meeting yesterday that in May this year, it will host the eThekwini Youth Employability Indaba.
During the discussion, while it was clear that some parties were sceptical about the need for the event, others were in support of it on condition that the costs were reduced.
Some opposition parties believe that the event will not bring about meaningful change in the lives of the youth participating in the summit.
They said that the expenditure on this item was another example of the city unnecessarily spending millions of rand on events that have no quantifiable value.
The parties said the city could no longer afford such spending.
ANC councillors fired back and said the youth in eThekwini were losing out on many progressive opportunities including job opportunities, learnerships and bursaries. They went as far as saying many of the youth studying in the universities in the city were not from eThekwini.
The council officials said that the R1.7m budget was less than what they had spent on the same event in previous years.
A report on the matter requested that authority be granted to the head of corporate and human resources to incur expenditure to the amount of R1.7m to host the eThekwini Youth Employability Indaba to be held from May 26 to 28, in partnership with the interested units within eThekwini, the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre and the Maritime Cluster.
DA councillor Nicole Graham said holding a three-day summit would not tackle unemployment in the city and it was not possible to determine how much change had happened in the lives of the participants after the previous events.
EFF councillor Thabani Miya expressed the same sentiments. He said while the idea was good, the party could not support the amount of money being spent on such an event when there were pressing service delivery issues that needed attention.
“We cannot spend such money, we have problems with water and electricity, that is a lot of money that is going to be spent there,” he said.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the programme deserved support as it was planned and budgeted for.
ANC councillor Thanduxolo Sabelo accused those opposed to the programme as advocating for the youth to be deprived of information and therefore opportunities.
“To bring in (the issue of) electricity and water on a programme that has been approved, I smell a rat, (EFF councillor) Miya is blackmailing us by saying that there are water and electricity challenges, this programme should therefore not happen.
“To claim that R1.7m is a lot of money is a drop in the ocean, we all know the cries of the youth that the resources we are giving are not enough
“The truth of the matter is that there is a youth unemployment ticking time bomb,” he said.
THE MERCURY