Cape Town - Minstrel leaders are incensed that the City of Cape Town went public and implied that they did not pay for services for Saturday’s minstrel parade through the streets of Cape Town
The city had complained that an umbrella body, the Cape Cultural Events and Carnival Committee, had not paid service providers
But the committee says it is furious after the city, instead of first consulting them, went public on the matter.
“It was surprising to hear that they put out a statement without even calling us first. We gave them our full commitment that we will pay for service providers during our meeting with the acting mayor, Brett Herron. They are trying to sabotage the event,” committee chief executive Kevin Momberg said.
This comes after a press statement was issued expressing concern that service providers had not been paid.
The city and the province had given the committee about R4 million to run the annual minstrel carnival in central Cape Town. The parade – traditionally held on January 2 – has been postponed thrice and is expected to take place on Saturday.
Momberg said during a meeting on Tuesday that the committee gave its full commitment that all the service providers – which involved sanitation and fencing for the event – would be fully paid before the event took place.
De Lille’s statement was accompanied by a letter from Sanitech which said the company would provide services if it was paid about R101 000 by on Wednesday and a balance of R57 000 on Saturday.
De Lille said the city was informed that the committee had not yet paid certain service providers, and that it had to provide proof of payment as part of its event permit application.
“If the event does not take place on Saturday, absolutely no one can blame the city as it will be because the committee has failed to pay the service providers with the money that the city has given them.”
But the committee hit back and provided a copy of proof of payment it had made.
“The city is taking this out of context. They are pushing the limits and I detect they are trying to sabotage us,” Momberg said.
Momberg said they had paid service providers 70 percent of the amounts up front.
Told that the minstrel committee had in fact paid service providers on Wednesday, De Lille’s spokeswoman, Zara Nicholson, wrote: “We received proof of payment for R78 101.60 at 3.16pm today, January 14, 2015.
“Furthermore, we received a letter from Sanitech advising that they received full payment at 3.41pm today.
“We received a letter from Pantsula Fencing at 4.44pm confirming that R100 000 was paid, but that a further R7 125 remains outstanding.
“The Cape Cultural Events and Carnival Committee undertook to confirm payments by 3pm on Tuesday, January 13, 2015 in a meeting chaired by councillor Brett Herron. This was not done. We are satisfied that by drawing attention to this matter, the minstrels have been compelled to at last try and finalise their arrangements after missing several deadlines.”
Cape Times