THE gloves are off between the ANC and its youth league in Limpopo.
This after the party in the province blasted provincial youth league chairman, Tony Rachoene, on Wednesday, 14 June for comments about the provincial leadership.
Rachoene accused the ANC in the province of doing nothing about non-performing deployees and said that some "MECs and mayors are sleeping on duty".
He also said the provincial government has no appetite to create jobs for the youth and or fill vacancies in public service with more than 13 000 unfilled posts in the province. He pointed out that more than 60% of young people in the province are unemployed.
But the provincial bosses hit back, describing Rachoene's comments as misguided and mischievous.
ANC Limpopo spokesman Jimmy Machaka, said the party noted with great disappointment the unfortunate utterances made by Rachoene on various media platforms, which he called "sheer political grand standing.”
“It is not true that the ANC in Limpopo is doing nothing about its deployees at various levels of government. In the most recent Provincial Executive Committee meeting, which cadre Rachoene was part of, the ANC in Limpopo resolved to conduct an assessment of all its deployees in order to assess if they are equal to the task,” he said.
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“It is also not true that the provincial government under the stewardship of Premier Chupu Mathabatha has no will to fill the funded vacancies. During a recent PEC Lekgotla, all MECs were directed to expedite the process of filling all the existing funded vacancies. The same sentiments were also reiterated at the level of Premier Mathabatha’s cabinet and there are reported in-roads to that effect,” said Machaka.
He further said as a leader of young people in the province, Rachoene is fully aware of many government programmes that are tilted to be biased towards the development of businesses owned by young people.
“An amount of R10 million has been set aside specifically for this purpose. The provincial government has also set aside millions of rands for the development of the Musina-Makhado and Fetakgomo-Tubatse Special Economic Zones, the revitalisation programme of industrial parks, which will be catalytic to the creation of thousands of jobs in the province,” he said.
Machaka pleaded with the ANCYL Limpopo to desist from making inflammatory statements in public, but to support government programmes which seek to empower young people.
