Ratepayers’ interests must be protected
There were Those a lot in of Nelson murmurs Mandela on social’media Bay s political at the weekend about Chippa United’s decision to play its DStv Premiership match against Kaizer Chiefs in East London on Saturday. circles have questioned why Chippa boss Siviwe Mpengesi has been allowed to get away with taking premier games — such as a Chiefs game, which is a crowd-puller — to East London when the Bay municipality spends about R13.5m a year to have the soccer outfit play in the city. The R13.5m includes a R7m relocation fee (or retention fee, rather) to be based in the city, and a fee of R6m which is sponsorship for them as anchor tenants at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. An additional R500,000 for marketing is also made available.
Mpengesi now wants the Bay municipality to allow him to rotate the club’s home games against marquee sides Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates between Gqeberha and East London in the next season to ensure that the people of the Buffalo City region are not robbed of big games.
There are a number of issues at play here. One, the Bay municipality did not pay the club its annual grant on time, as council meetings were beset with delays.
The city argued that the club had failed to provide audited financial statements, but there was also the issue of the metro withholding funding to its entity, Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), which manages the anchor tenant agreement and disperses money to Chippa.
This gave Chippa the temerity to do as it pleased. Two, there appears to be no political will from some among the governing coalition — the ANC in particular — to enforce Chippa’s contracts with the city to ensure it brings its top-flight games to the city. Why is that?
The interests of the ratepayers of the Bay must be protected and the council has, so far, failed to do so. The city houses a world-class stadium which is underused, and the ratepayers deserve to see the economic spin-offs that come with having a team like Kaizer Chiefs playing in our city.
Should the municipality agree to Mpengesi’s plan to rotate home games, the agreements must reflect these changes along with what should be reduced sponsorship funding.
The interests of the Bay ratepayers must be uppermost in mind during those negotiations.