WHAT was supposed to be the announcement of an exciting new arts carnival coming to Kempton pARK has now become a clash between parties over funds.
MMC for the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (SRAC), Clr Zeni Tshongweni, announced during February’s council meeting in Germiston that the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Festival would be hosted at the Dries Niemandt Precinct for three consecutive years, beginning this year in April.
The festival, which was previously held in Benoni, will be a part of the Chris Hani Memorial celebrations, Tshongweni explained.
The proposed budget for the festival is R90 million, divided equally over the three years.
But the multi-million rand budget quickly turned into a heated discussion after Clr Izak Berg of the Independent Ratepayers’ Association (IRASA) questioned why such a big budget was approved for a music festival, instead of using that money to finance unemployed youth who needed skills to find jobs.
“Here in Ekurhuleni we sit with an unemployment rate of 36.4% among the youth but the mayor and his party would rather wine and dine taxpayers’ hard earned monies than to look at the real issues identified and used in his speeches. I wonder if the mayor ever reads his own speeches before and after their presentations,” Berg said.
“You could have given many artisans scholarships worth R90 million and by doing so improve our industrial hub and the youth living in it.”
Berg also rejected the participation of the three departments involved, stating each was incompetent to do the job. According to Berg, the SRAC Department never has any money to maintain or improve the metro’s current facilities.
He said the Economic Development Department was the reason why “huge companies have left Ekurhuleni”.
“Because of their lack in speeding up applications or because the contributions paid to invest in Ekurhuleni is just too expensive, that is why 66 000 new buildings that were built in this metro per year 10 years ago, have been reduced to less than 6 000 a year. This department has reduced our income base when it comes to rates and taxes but they have the cheek to contribute millions to this festival.
“Lastly, the Communication and Brand Management Department is still trying to brand Ekurhuleni 15 years later with their branded toys, pens and badges, basically junk dumped from China. There is no branding vision or long term strategy in this department. One wonders if they have even paid import duties on all the t-shirts they have handed out over the past 15 years.”
The DA also had something to say about the spending of millions of rands on this venture. Even though the party never added to the debate about the funding during the council meeting, they issued a press release almost a week afterwards regarding their disapproval of the money to be spent on WOMAD, stating that the festival “alienates residents” and would be better spent towards service delivery.
“R90 million would be better spent on repairing dilapidated infrastructure to ensure that residents of Ekurhuleni are not treated as second class citizens. Wisely spent, this money would have a knock on effect – creating jobs in a metro that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country,” Fred Nel, MPL and DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Co-operative Governance, said in a statement.
“It will be the act of an irresponsible administration that chooses to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a music festival while those in desperate need of services and jobs remain neglected.”
