BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – New Board in town.
The Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga, has announced the new Eswatini National Youth Council (ENYC) Board.
ENYC is a Category A enterprise, under the ministry. It was established to coordinate youth activities, stakeholders and empower young people through programmes derived from the national youth policy.
The key responsibilities of the Board are to play an oversight role in the operation of the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO); approve budgets; appraise the CEO and CFO on their annual performances; develop a strategic plan for the entity; approve all detailed financial statements, designs as well as to oversee the implementations of programmes.
One of the new Board members, Maneliso Feziwe Vilakati.
The incoming Board has vowed to ensure youth participation in politics. The vow was made by the incoming Chairperson of the Board, Babsy Mavuso, when he was unveiled together with seven Board members yesterday.
The minister announced that the Board had four returning members.
“As part of our compliance with good governance and the PEU Act, which emphasises on continuity, we have retained four members who served one term in the outgoing Board. These are the Chairperson, Babsy Mavuso, Vice-chairperson Senzo Malaza, and representatives of the ministry, which is the Principal Secretary (PS) Mlayeto Dlamini, he said.
Nomalungelo Dladla
The new members of the Board are Liviwe Makhubu, Nomalungelo Dladla, Maneliso Vilakati and Gcina Dlamini.
The minister noted that the state of the youth report painted a gloomy picture of the youth in Eswatini. He highlighted countless challenges such as very high unemployment rates, an increase in abuse and socially unacceptable habits, and poor sexual reproduction health, among other challenges.
The mandate of the Board is also to ensure that existing programmes are sustained.
“We expect that the new Board will come with strategies and improvements that will ensure that the empowerment of the youth is complete socially, economically and politically. The Board is also expected to strengthen relations with local and international partners and mobilise resources outside government funding through the annual subvention,” he said.
