DEAR Editor,-
I read the article ‘Glove up’ (SCH November 27) and we are all concerned about the decision made by the municipality concerned. In fact, not just HCM alone, but Ugu as well.
Firstly it is a known fact to South Coasters that the owner of Cyassound Holdings, Siyabonga Msomi, is politically connected, particularly with one high-ranking ANC member who instructs the municipalities to award event management tenders to Mr Msomi, who makes a mess of them all. But to my surprise, the municipalities still keep ‘extending’ his contracts even after the tremendous blunders he has made of these events. Furthermore, he fails dismally to meet the minimum requirements of the intended objectives.
Mr Msomi was first awarded the Ugu Jazz Festival, which has seen numbers dropping tremendously from the time it was managed by Durban-based, experienced Touch Africa. Over and above failing to attract an audience, the whole festival has been a mess in terms of organisation and planning and as a result of the failure to attract an audience due to the 2012 blunder that saw people held up in traffic for more than eight hours, the festival is no longer profitable. He promises to bring artists who never makes it to stage. Up to now, he still owes artists, suppliers and service providers payments for the June festival, but guess what? Ugu has awarded him another three years, with an option to extend!
In the previous contract, it was stated that after each festival Mr Msomi was due to submit gate takings to Ugu, who would then pay him a 20 percent management fee. He never did this. Instead he created bogus invoices for payments that never occurred so that he could keep all the money. For the entire duration of his first term, he never gave the municipality a cent, but they still went ahead and awarded him a new contract. This year alone, the festival has failed to sell more than 6 000 tickets. This from a festival that sold over 17 000 tickets in 2012. Clearly they have run out of ideas, but instead of correcting the situation, they awarded him the contract to run the Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre. Even though he has no experience whatsoever and no clue of what that job entails. Now, once again, the centre is running at a loss and the municipality will have to ‘bail’ them out. But they will extend his contract for another three years.
Since its inception some three years ago, the Hibiscus Coast Beach Festival has never been anything close to a minimal success. The planning, quality of artists and line-up has always been questionable, but to top it all, so is the audience who attend the festival. The first year, one struggled to count beyond 100 people in attendance over the two days. The second year was similar and the third year was almost the same. The only event that gets attendance is the ‘free concert’ on the third day (Sunday) which begs the question why the municipality would keep spending taxpayers’ money on a failed project and extend a contract for a failed service provider – as if the South Coast only has one events management company.
DISILLUSIONED
