City ‘sitting’ on Cape Town Cup probe

THE City has been accused of sitting on a probe into the R28 million loss-making Cape Town Cup for more than two years.

In 2016, a close-out report for the 2015 Cape Town Cup confirms that the City of Cape Town lost R28 million in direct revenue.

The Cape Argus reported at the time that only 22 000 tickets were sold for the tournament weekend, resulting in a huge financial loss and prompting the City council’s executive director of tourism, events and marketing, Anton Groenewald to resign.

The City had spent more than R30m to organise the event and received just over R2m in direct revenue.

Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United took on Sporting Lisbon from Portugal and English Premiership side Crystal Palace in the tournament on July 24 and 26.

ANC Cape Town leader Xolani Sotashe said the issue had been kept quiet for far too long.

“We cannot have this issue still with the City. It is clear that the DA wants to hide this issue, because there are investigations and reports upon reports, but no action is taken against those responsible. We are talking of losses of R28 million, that is no small change,” he said.

“The officials who were responsible resigned, but that is just running away from the mess that was created. (Deputy mayor) Ian Neilson was the chairperson of finance at the time and this happened under his watch. Why was this never addressed?”

Sotashe said the issue arose from officials in the administration who have a total disregard for the finance principals.

The investigation is currently with the City’s Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).

MPAC chairperson councillor Yagyah Adams said he expected the report to be presented in the “next month or two”.

“We need to get the final report and then present it to council for a decision. The matter is currently with the City manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo,” he said.