NYDA engages youth in KZN

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has held on an outreach programme in KwaZulu-Natal to promote holistic development and provide safe, constructive alternatives for youth engagement outside the classroom.

The programme also included oversight visits to NYDA grant recipients and youth-headed indigent households in uMzinto. 

“These efforts form part of the NYDA’s broader campaign to bring services directly to

young people, particularly those in rural areas, townships, and informal settlements. The aim is to provide practical support that alleviates poverty, combats youth unemployment, and creates pathways to empowerment,” the agency said.

In a practical demonstration of this commitment, the NYDA, in partnership with the Umdoni Local Municipality, will support two young unemployed single mothers who were visited during the outreach.  

One will be enrolled in a business management training programme with a pathway to start-up funding, alongside job placement support. 

The second will receive assistance to return to school and will be enrolled in both the Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives and the National Youth Service programme for immediate socio-economic relief.

“To the young women who have faced challenges like teenage pregnancy; do not give up. This is not the end of your dreams. Use the opportunities we bring to empower yourselves, protect yourselves, and become the authors of your own future,” NYDA Executive Chairperson, Dr Sunshine Myende said.

This visit affirms the NYDA’s strategic vision of building an inclusive, youth-centred development agenda, aligned with the principles of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the broader national commitment to socio-economic transformation.

The visit was also intended to honour the legacy of the late former Executive Deputy Chairperson, Bavelile Hlongwa.

The outreach carried profound significance, as the informal settlements visited are the very communities where the late Bavelile Hlongwa was raised. Her memory and legacy live on through the ongoing work of the NYDA to serve, uplift, and empower young South Africans.

“As we honour Hlongwa’s legacy, the NYDA remains resolute in taking services to all young people where they are, as they are. Not every young person will go to university, but every young person must have access to skills, support, and opportunities that enable them to break the cycle of poverty,” Myende said. -SAnews.gov.za