News24.com | No New Year’s Eve party for City of Tshwane, ANC blames DA administration
There will be no music bonanza for City of Tshwane residents to ring in the New Year on Monday after the municipality said it had to cancel its cross-over celebration.
This is because “the appointed service provider pulled out at the 11th hour” and a bid to salvage the event was not viable.
“Despite this setback, we tried to enlist the services of other bidders with a view to salvaging the event, but their quotes were obscenely exorbitant and it was short notice to pull off an event of that magnitude,” City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said in a statement on Friday.
The City has been hosting the event for many years and it was one of the marquee events it hosted to usher in the New Year.
“In our endeavour to salvage the event, we were mindful of the appropriated budget for the event, and as a responsible administration, we wouldn’t exceed the budget to host the event at all costs, to the taxpayers’ detriment,” said Bokaba.
The City apologised “profusely” to the revellers that were already looking forward to the event on December 31.
“We hope our residents would explore other alternatives to cross-over to the new season.”
However, the ANC in Tshwane blamed the event’s cancellation on the “failures” of the DA administration.
Squabble
The ANC’s Tshwane caucus said on Saturday that the cancellation was allegedly due to a squabble between executive mayor Solly Msimanga and city manager Moeketsi Mosola.
“The embattled City manager, Moeketsi Mosola, has refused to sign for the approval of anything related to the corruption prone Executive Mayor’s office, including the New Year’s Eve event grinding the wheels of service delivery to a screeching halt,” said ANC Tshwane caucus spokesperson Lesego Makhubela.
The party said the cancellation of the event would have negative effects on the cultural and heritage tourism of the City.
“Social cohesion and the economic spin-offs that are usually attained in hosting this kind of event will not be realized, same as the benefit SMME’s derive from the spending on this event. This has now become a trend with all social and cultural events that have benefited our people in the recent past being either cancelled or disinvested from by the corrupt DA led City administration,” said Makhubela.
The ANC reiterated its call for “ethical leadership and honest stewardship in the City”.
“We again ask the minister of Cogta, the Gauteng premier and MEC of Cogta to act in a honourable manner and do justice to the vulnerable people of Tshwane and immediately place the City under administration,” said Makhubela.