Johannesburg - Organising a cabinet lekgotla is hard work.
You need to hire at least four canopies or marquees with flame-retardant linings, more than 100 tables, loads of table cloths of just the right colour, 1 000 napkins, dozens of chairs, a fabulous sound system with dozens of microphones and flat-panel monitors, flowers, endless plates, VIP toilets, fans, fire extinguishers and a massive generator.
This is not for a get-together in the middle of nowhere.
It’s for a meeting in an exclusive suburb: Bryntirion Estate in Pretoria where the next cabinet lekgotla is due to be held on July 28 in the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guesthouse on the estate.
But the existing facilities are not sufficient, so the Department of Public Works has been tasked with providing the infrastructure support for the three-day lekgotla, and there is a six-page list of requirements.
The average cabinet lekgotla costs R1.1 million, depending on the venue, said Thami Mchunu, spokesman for the Department of Public Works.
The cost for next month’s lekgotla was not yet known because contracts for the work were under evaluation.
“The client decides on the venue of the lekgotla and specifications are set according to the venue,” said Mchunu.
The Presidency referred requests for comment to Public Works.
The requirements include a Philips or Bosch audio conference system with 200 delegate microphones - “nothing else to be used” - and 39 flat-panel 21-inch monitors.
Mchunu denied that the audio specifications favoured a particular bidder, saying the product specification would “reduce hiccups and unintended disruptions and that different service providers were used for the four previous meetings”.
The list includes a 100 kilovolt-ampere generator, electrical fans for heating and cooling, six “comfortable” ottomans, 50 “comfortable medium cocktail chairs” and, even though it is due to be held at the guesthouse, it includes two VIP toilets.
The marquees and canopies include 10m x 15m and a 15m x 20m structures.
Tablecloths must be “earthy colours such as stone or sand colour - other suggestions welcome but not cream”.
Mchunu said the spending was in line with the National Treasury’s cost-containment measures.
In December 2013, the National Treasury issued an instruction to departments on cost-containment including saving on meetings and venues.
“Cabinet resolved that all departments, constitutional institutions and public entities must implement measures to contain operational costs and eliminate all non-essential expenditure,” said the instruction.
But cabinet itself is exempt.
“Cost-containment measures related to executive authorities will be prescribed in the revised Ministerial Handbook,” it stated.
In February last year, the Ministry of Finance told Parliament that the Treasury could not take action against the executive if they ignored cost-containment instructions because they were accountable to Parliament.
The Star