18 Dec 2019

The Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu has told Parliament that 638 people applied for Youth Freelance Journalism programme for 2019/2020 financial year.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Mr Mthimkhulu said the programme was expected to absorb 200 young people who would be shortlisted to provide stories for use by the Dailynews and Kutlwano magazine before the 2019/2020 financial year.

He said it was not true that the Department of Information Services was considering to stop the programme, but observed that the engagement process for the programme commenced with soliciting applications from interested young people nationwide.

He however said the process was delayed by the review of the freelancer’s engagement contract by the department and the Attorney General’s Chambers to align it with procurement processes defined by the PPADB act.

Francistown West MP, Mr Ignitius Moswaane had asked the minister to update the house as to why the 2019/2020 Youth Freelance Journalism Programme had not commenced this financial year despite the then minister having informed the house in April that a budget of P1million had been set aside for the programme.

He also wanted the minister to state the number of youth who applied for the programme under the Department of Information Services for 2019/2020 and the number that the department would recruit and when.ENDS