BY REGINALD KANYANE

ABOUT 50 young people in the Kagisano-Molopo local municipality took to the streets on Wednesday after a National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) training programme that was meant for them was moved to Taung.

The youth blamed the local municipality for the bungle.

One of the affected young people, Tumisang Duncan Goboentse, 29, said that they were supposed to start with their plumbing and wielding learnership, but the move was blocked by mayor, Veronica Keketsi.

“We were offered a learnership, but now it seems our names were removed from the list. We want to know what happened because this learnership will come in handy. Unemployment is taking over our lives, now the least we expect is confusion within the programme,” Goboentse said.

Another disgruntled youth, Molly Magabe, 23, said poverty was the order of the day in the area and without any skills development, they will struggle forever.

Mayor Veronica Keketsi said she never received any information regarding the learnership programme and refuted claims that she was the one blocking the programme.

“I really know nothing about that programme, but I will ask the MMC to look into the matter. I will never stand in the way of any youth programmes that will be implemented in the area,” she said.

Boitumelo Chichinbua, a member of the mayoral committee for local economic development at kagisano-Molopo local municipality said that investigations were underway to establish why the programme was moved.

“So far, I’m not aware of what really transpired because the youth submitted their grievances to me on Monday, and I am still trying to find out who got all answers. We will make sure we inform them of the outcome immediately we get all facts correct,” Chinchinbua said.

NYDA coordinator in the area, Mothusi Montoedi said: “There learnership was delayed in Kagisano-Molopo and it was moved to Taung because of some technicalities. We were engaged with all stakeholders on Wednesday and the training commenced yesterday (Thursday). The municipality was not involved in any delays, and we will go back to those youth and inform them about any development amid the issue.”

-TDN

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