-Thandi McAllister says

FORMER executive member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), attorney-at-law Thandi McAllister, has disclosed that the party during its tenure in office abandoned youths despite campaigning on youth inclusion.

McAllister made this known while speaking on the Starting Point podcast where she criticised the party for sidelining young people after campaigning heavily on youth involvement.

She described her ‘heartbreak’ at witnessing what she called the “non-inclusion” of youth in governance, even after the party had won support on promises of youth empowerment.

“At some point between 2015 and 2017 there was a feeling of the lack of inclusion of the youth,” McAllister said.

“We recognised that, you know, there was this non-inclusion of our role in governance, and this is what we worked for. The party campaigned on the inclusion of youth and on the importance of the youth vote and the youth voice.”

She recalled that during her time in the party, young members advocated fiercely for increased involvement at both the party and national levels. However, their calls often fell on deaf ears.

“We were advocating for a greater inclusion of young people in the system of governance, a greater inclusion of young people in the party…. At some point we felt that we were not being heard and enough was not being done,” she expressed.

To this end, she noted that she battled inner conflict with balancing loyalty to the party with disappointment in its actions.

Despite efforts to grow the party’s base with young, bright minds, McAllister believes the PNCR failed to retain those persons.

“I don’t think the party did enough to retain the young, bright minds it had then,” she remarked.

Meanwhile, speaking on former President David Granger’s recent comments urging young voters to reject “empty promises,” McAllister noted that those words would hold weight if he had lived up to his words.

She said: “Granger’s utterances perhaps would have held more weight if he had lived [up] to those words while he was president and while he had the opportunity to demonstrate to youth that we are important. Regrettably, he did not. Regrettably, what we saw was a geriatric movement.”

She further noted that the very struggle for relevance Granger is now pursuing is reminiscent of what young members experienced under his leadership.

“It is that movement, in my most humble opinion, that has him where he is now, out of office, a former president, fighting for a voice, fighting to be heard like [sic] we fought to be heard while he was at the helm.”

She reflected that her decision to leave the party was a painful but necessary one, describing it as a heartbreaking experience.