Reading between the (racial) lines
AfriForum says it was 'reliably informed' that a senior member of council said that 'the pub can't go to the white lady'.
UMDONI municipal manager, Xolani Luthuli, took councillors and media by surprise when he broke the silence on the beachfront pavilion tender fiasco at the council meeting on Wednesday last week.
Most surprising was the municipal manager’s acknowledgement that an eviction notice had been served on one of thetenants for breach of contract, after failing to secure a franchise agreement by a date set in January. Mr Luthuli said that, once the eviction process was concluded, a new tender process would begin.
Spokesman for Faurco Investments, the tenants who received the eviction notice, Jan Overbeek, strongly denied that there was a breach in contract. He said that a meeting was held with the municipal manager and Faurco, on November 28 last year, where it was agreed that Faurco had until May 31, 2014, to secure the long-term franchise agreement – a meeting he says, that the municipal manager now denies ever having happened.
He explained that details regarding revamps needed to be finalised before the long term franchise agreement could be concluded, which has now happened. The municipality is continuing with the eviction, delivering a third notice on Tuesday morning this week, and Faurco is now consulting its lawyers.
AfriForum hit out against the municipality in a press release saying it was ‘reliably informed’ that a senior member of the Umdoni Council had said in a meeting that ‘the pub can’t go to the white lady’. AfriForum’s Chris Fourie added, “Famous Brands did not originally want to enter into a franchise agreement with Faurco Investments. It took Cookey Myburgh six months to convince Famous Brands to give her the franchise that she had for more than 25 years.”
Ice-cream parlour
Controversy with another tenant has been reported by AfriForum, which claims that Umsawakho PK Trading, holders of the lease for the ice-cream shop, had not paid rent for the last three months. According to the figures published in the intention to award advertisement on the municipal website, the outstanding amount owed to the municipality would be R19 942.50. This is a breach of the lease agreement, and a loss of revenue for the municipality.
Pub lease
Up until this point most of the controversy had been focused on the irregularities in the award of the pub premises lease. Mr Luthuli explained that, at first glance, everything seemed above board with the bid evaluation committee and bid adjudication committee. However, not having a tax clearance certificate was a serious omission. Investigations were ongoing and an official was being charged with negligence.
He said that the municipality was currently acquiring a legal opinion to test the validity of the awarding of that lease and could expect an answer within a week. Tholakele Maintenance & Renovations Services CC withdrew from the lease on October 4, 2013, stating financial reasons. However a sudden turnaround shortly after they withdrew set off alarm bells.
The funding came in the form of a sub-lease agreement with a third party. Tender documents clearly stated that sub-leasing was not allowed. Questions around whether this tenant has paid the rent, remain unanswered by the municipality and the pub, said to be a Keg, is still not open. With an eviction order dished out to only one tenant, could this be a case of double standards?
