Lisa Isaacs
HANDCUFFED to their briefcase, Cape Cultural Events and Carnival Committee (CCECC) chief executive Kevin Momberg yesterday handed over a full audit of how they had spent the city’s R2 million in funding to organise four of the biggest year-end minstrel events.
A group of performing minstrels marched in front of the civic centre as they met their report deadline of March 31, stipulated in a historic agreement made last year with the city that saw the minstrels organise their own events.
After Momberg was uncuffed from the case, he opened it and presented the report to the head of the city’s Film and Events permit office, Terence Isaacs.
The city officials said they would monitor and evaluate the CCECC’s performance under the agreement after a full report was provided.
“We had to show them we are not silent, the people must know we submitted the report.
“Now they can scrutinise us, now they can go for our jugular,” Momberg said, shortly after handing over the report.
Mayco member for tourism, events and economic development Garreth Bloor said the city would review the report and issue a statement in due course.
“It’s the audit and the report regarding the street parades that we managed, and feedback on what happened, the challenges and so on,” Momberg said.
He felt the city’s request for a report was justified as they had provided the R2m funding.
“Forensic audits must happen, but it doesn’t matter because we have all the documents to prove it. This audit has been done by our auditors, so we are satisfied.
“Now the next stage, we will wait for the Lotto, we will do the exact same with them.
“We’ve got nothing to hide or shy away from. We can account for what we did,” Momberg said.
Momberg was referring to the fact that the public protector was investigating how the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association spent nearly R40.64m disbursed to them by the National Lotteries Board.
In a statement, the CCECC said trust between themselves and the city had broken down.
They also said more than 1 300 temporary job opportunities were created, as well as more than 100 business opportunities for service providers, caterers, stallholders and more.
“The many hurdles we had to cross, and continuous shifting of the goalposts by the city, made us determined to make a success of our street parades.”