The North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has dismissed circulating claims that it has recruited young people from outside the province for a learnership programme scheduled to take place this year at the Kgora Farmers Training Centre in Ramatlabama, near Mahikeng.
The department says the allegations stem from an audio recording currently being shared on social media, which it has labelled as false and misleading.
North West MEC for Agriculture Madoda Sambatha strongly rejected the claims, accusing the individual responsible for spreading the information of deliberately using propaganda to advance his organisation’s agenda.
“Learnerships are meant for provincial-based unemployed youth. This is not true, and the person who is spreading this knows that he is lying. His lies can never be proven anywhere. He uses propaganda to mobilise support for his organisation. This must be rejected outright as false,” Sambatha said.
The department has urged the public, particularly unemployed youth in the province, not to be misled by unverified information and to rely only on official communication channels for details regarding government programmes.