Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL
Gauteng Department of Social Development’s constant mismanagement of the Nasi Spani youth brigade initiative has resulted in failing to deliver sustainable jobs and skills, and measurable benefits to the young people it promised to empower.
According to the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s 2024/25 Annual Report, the programme has been beset by delays, confusion, and underspending, with R59.8 million unspent in the department’s Development and Research programme.
Despite this, the department continues to promote Nasi Spani as a flagship success story, while core services like social work, community care, and child protection remain critically understaffed.
The Nasi Spani youth brigades are not numbers in a report; they are young people with hopes, families, and futures. They were promised empowerment, yet the department has treated them as disposable labour to prop up a political project.
Even more concerning is the MEC for Social Development, Faith Mazibuko’s, own oral response in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to the DA’s question, in which she admitted that some of the so-called brigades were not even within Gauteng. Mazibuko’s corrective measures to their absence was to institute a proper leave process when they are out of the province. In a different sitting, she indicated that they were doing household profiling.
This revelation confirms what the DA has warned for years that the Nasi Spani project lacks transparency, coordination, and accountability.
Whilst neglecting the core mandate of care, the department continues to ignore its constitutional obligation to the vulnerable. These are children in crisis, the elderly, persons with disabilities, victims of abuse, and impoverished families who depend on frontline social workers for survival, noting that there are many social work graduates and social auxiliary workers continue to sit at home without work.
The department’s failure to fill vacant social worker posts and properly fund NPOs has left many communities without vital support, even as funds are misdirected to a politically branded initiative that produces neither social impact nor sustainable livelihoods.
The DA demands that MEC Mazibuko table a full report on Nasi Spani’s budget, expenditure, and placement data, including confirmation of brigades operating outside Gauteng when they were supposed to be in Gauteng. We also demand the job descriptions of the youth brigades’ members and the work achieved to date since the programme started.
Furthermore, the department must also explain whether Nasi Spani is a funded or unfunded mandate, how it aligns with the department’s core functions, and where the funds for this programme were sourced, as it didn’t exist until 2023. We need answers on whether other programmes were terminated to make funds available for this programme.
A transparent youth skills development programme must be developed with an exit plan to ensure meaningful employment outcomes.
The DA will continue to stand with the youth brigades and the vulnerable citizens of Gauteng, demanding care with integrity, opportunity with purpose, and a government that truly works for its people.