Cape Town - The City of Cape Town is coming under fire from opposition parties and civic organisations for the way it pushed through its new logo at the end of February, with the ANC taking the matter to the high court to declare the logo process invalid.
Despite dismissing the ANC’s court bid as “nothing more or less than an election gimmick”, Paul Boughey, chief of staff to mayor Patricia de Lille, said the city would contest the legal action “on very strong grounds”.
The ANC in the Western Cape filed a high court application on Friday to have the process by which the new logo was adopted declared invalid.
ANC chief whip Xolani Sotashe questioned the need to spend more than R300 000 on a logo that should cost only about R70 000 to design.
The party’s legal action follows an earlier application by the National Party to the Public Protector to investigate alleged irregularities in the way the logo was dealt with by the council.
Meanwhile, George Sieraha, of the Durbanville Community Forum that represents about 13 residents’ and ratepayers’ associations, has appealed to Anton Bredell, MEC for Local Government, to probe the DA-led city’s adoption of a new logo without proper public participation.
He has lodged a case of maladministration against the city, on the grounds that it contravened the Local Government Municipal Systems Act which underlined the need for public consultation where appropriate.
“I am of the belief that the above processes never took place,” said Sieraha.
Boughey said the ANC was growing desperate in the face of evidence that it would not win the Western Cape. “The fact that the ANC has waited more than three months to launch said legal action, only days before the national elections, exposes the fact that this is nothing more than a cheap political point-scoring exercise and a waste of the court’s time.”
Questions have been raised about the cost of designing the new logo, implementation, and the way in which the design agency was appointed.
The city has repeatedly confirmed that its tender process was open and transparent.
Cape Argus