The Member of Parliament for Kanye North-Honourable Thapelo Letsholo has urged the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC)- Honourable Tumiso Rakgare to pull up his socks in availing the opportunities for the youth. He said earlier today when responding to MYSC budget presentation by Minister Rakgare. Letsholo is well-known for his radical responses and progressive inputs.
“Minister young people want to know where opportunities are, thats why when they hear that someone got a million pula tender to supply Ministry of Health with masks, there is an uproar on social media. It is not because young people are jeolous, they just want to know how he got that opportunity le gore le bone baka e bona jang [and how they too can access it]” Letsholo underscored.
There currently is an issue doing the rounds in social media where Salim Kegodile- the personal assistant (PA) to the Assistant Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration- Dumezweni Meshack Mthimkhulu has been awarded a tender to brand and advertise the recently launched ‘ArmReady for Lemao’ campaign.
According to the law, the civil servants are not allowed to tender for government jobs. Not only is Kegodile a civil servant, but he works directly with the fourth powerful cabinet member. In the cabinet hierarchy is the President, followed by the Vice President, then Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration followed by his Assistant.
In the current set-up of the State of Public Emergency (SoPE), most jobs are given as Presidential directive meaning instructions either come from President Mokgweetsi Masisi, Morwaeng or Mthimkhulu. Mthimkhulu as earlier mentioned, is Kegodile’s boss.
Due to the reasons mentioned above, there are suspicions doing the rounds that Kegodile was not given the tender procedurally. Most social commentators are of the view that he should not have been given the tender as he is a civil servant. Some are even questioning if it is not the time to give other civil servants a chance to tender as well.
Meanwhile, Minister Rakgare urged the youth who have benefitted from Youth Development Fund (YDF) programme to payback the monies they are due to pay back so that other young people can also be funded to start businesses.
“Mr Speaker we are embarking on a national campaign to encourage YDF beneficiaries to pay back their loans , we encourage politicians, Members of Parliament and Councilors to help us so we can recover these loans because some YDF funded businesses are doing well” he said.
