DA SLAMS GAUTENG ANC FOR TSHWANE SPLURGING UP TO R1 MILLION ON WORLD CUP TICKETS

Fred Nel, Gauteng Democratic Alliance Spokesperson on Local Government, said on the advice of the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Kgaogelo Lekgoro, the Tshwane Mayoral Committee resolved to buy tickets for the Fifa World Cup. This despite the Treasury instruction that municipalities may not splurge on tickets or soccer clothing. The DA said the decision taken on 2 June 2010 indicates that the estimated expenditure for the tickets would be R724,500 but will be restricted to R 1 million.

Nel said "Firstly I am concerned that they chose to act on the advice of the MEC who tried to punch loopholes in the Minister of Finance's instructions. Surely in the interest of good governance they should have adhered to the Treasury instruction and not wasted the money on football tickets. The MEC acted wrongly, insofar as the DA is concerned, and we will hold him to account in the Legislature for his advice to municipalities to purchase tickets. He should be the custodian of good governance in the province and not the perpetrator of wastage of money on luxuries when such funds are much needed for service delivery in our province. "

"Secondly" said Nel, " the DA is very concerned about exactly who benefitted from the purchase of the tickets. The report indicated that tickets would have been distributed to "CoT stakeholders" and "winners of the semi final and final of the U12, and some winners of the 10 districts". "CoT stakeholders" is a very wide term and the DA will be investigating exactly who benefitted from these tickets and ask for the advantages generated for the residents of Tshwane from these beneficiaries".

Nel said "We cannot just take the word of the ANC mayoral committee that these stakeholders generated value for the municipality. We need to know exactly who these people were and how the municipality benefitted" . He added that the DA is currently investigating the total value of local and provincial government expenditure on world cup tickets in Gauteng. He said "I also submitted a question to the Premier, before the World Cup , asking how much the provincial government spent on World Cup tickets, who benefitted and what benefit was created for Gauteng. I am still waiting for a response from the Premier" concluded Nel.

(Supporting documents are available by email on request)

Statement issued by Fred Nel, MPL, DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Local Government, July 12 2010

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