‘Festival a waste of taxpayers money’
DA livid over expenditure that is above budget
The Essence Festival held in Durban is embroiled in a bitter money fight.
The event, scheduled for next month, headlined by US singer Jill Scott, has been slated by opposition parties for wasting “millions of taxpayers money”.
The six-day event, which started last year in Durban, featured seminars, workshops and star-studded music concerts. Last year, US musicians such as gospel superstar Yolanda Adams, R&B musicians Ne-Yo, Kelly Price, Estelle and actor Steve Harvey were part of the festival.
The staging of the festival has angered opposition parties like the DA, which deems it as a “wasteful expenditure”.
DA leader in KwaZulu-Natal Zwakele Mcwango said money wastage began in 2015 when eThekwini forked out R5-million for the rights to use Essence Festival name, but the event never happened due to lack of time.
Last year, the city paid R6-million for licensing, while it parted with R7-million this year. DA has accused eThekwini of wasting R95-million in an event that failed to get maximum turnout.
“The festival was a failure in a sense that it could not even fill Moses Mabhida Stadium to its capacity. Secondly, the organisers were giving away too many complimentary tickets.”
Initially, the aim of the festival was to boost tourism and the economy of the city. An internal audit was conducted on how the money was spent, and recommendations provided.
According to an audit report that Sowetan has seen, the budget for the festival was R41million. However, the city spent R53-million more than what it had budgeted for.
“Millions were spent but they could not market the event properly. This has made us to believe that the festival is used as a [money] laundering scheme. We are demanding a forensic audit to be done because there is money that is unaccounted for,” said the DA.
The report raised concerns that based on the analysis of figures and calculations, expenditure amounted to R78million and not R95-million.
The recommendations of the report stated that the City Integrity Investigative Unit needed to investigate the procurement process of suppliers used and paid in order to protect the city against any financial misconduct.
eThekwini head of communications Tozi Mthethwa said the alleged internal report was withdrawn by the chief auditor because it was full of inaccuracies. She denied that the event was a failure, claiming that it attracted more than 61 000 visitors. More than 400 were from the US.
There is money that is unaccounted for ... about R16-million