Stadium hire sparks an uproar

Questions over deviation procurement report for 2014 Buyel’Ekhaya festival

AR847 952 deviation in procurement by Buffalo City Metro (BCM) in 2014 to hire Buffalo Park cricket stadium for a summer music festival has sparked new controversy.

This after the deviation report for the stadium was only tabled in council three years after the payment was made.

The deviation from normal supply chain processes payment was approved by subsequently axed BCM city manager Andile Fani for the 2014 Buyel’Ekhaya Pan African music festival. However, the deviation report was never submitted to the council as stated by law. The controversial deviation is also at the centre of the suspension of a senior official at the metro’s economic development department.

Three years after the deviation payment was made, Bob Naidoo, who was acting city manager, submitted the deviation report last month hoping for the report to be merely noted.

However, angry councillors refused to note the report and instead demanded answers.

Naidoo wrote in his report that the problem of the deviation report never being brought before council was brought to his attention by the supply chain management department as part of the audit improvement plan processes.

“It is therefore proposed that the delays be referred to internal audit to investigate,” wrote Naidoo.

Council speaker Alfred Mtsi said the report would come back to the council next month with all the missing information that left councillors angry. Shocked councillors, mostly from the ANC, said the first time the report was tabled in council was in last month’s council meeting.

Some called for an investigation to be conducted concerning the matter.

Naidoo said the music festival, which is part of the summer season, needed an appropriate venue to ensure safety and success of the event. “The nature of the event which is a jazz festival draws and caters different needs to musiclovers and it is an event that takes [the] whole day.”

Trying to justify why BCM chose the venue, Naidoo said one specification of the venue was a requirement for a presidential suite with a lounge with seating arrangements, a kitchen, television screen, ablution facilities, bar and highly-controlled access.

He said BCM only a had a few big sporting facilities “with such facilities which are needed in order to deliver a successful event”.

These were the BCM, Sisa Dukashe and Buffalo Park Cricket stadiums. “Border Cricket stadium [Buffalo Park] is the only venue that meets the two event specifications inclusive of security plans. These circumstances make it practically impossible to follow the route of a public tender process as outlined in regulations, however the regulation makes a provision for deviation,” Naidoo wrote.

However, despite the reasons stated councillors said the reasons for the late submission of the report were not clear.

Councillor Luleka Simon-Ndzele said: “We have never received this report for three full years. That is wrong to submit something that happened in 2014 only in 2017.”

Ward 45 councillor Thozamile Norexe requested a break-down of what the money was used for in hiring the venue, while proportional representative councillor Sindiswa Gomba requested the report to be deferred for further investigation. —