Durban - The eThekwini Municipality has given hip-hop star, Cassper Nyovest free use of the iconic football stadium for his much-hyped #FillUpMosesMabhida concert next month.
The city confirmed the deal on Thursday.
When the concert was announced earlier this month, there were unconfirmed reports that the city was giving Nyovest R56 million as a contribution.
Having heard about the supposed contribution, for the event, the Federation For Radical Economic Transformation and one of its affiliates Amadelangokubona Business Forum confronted the city, demanding to know how this huge amount of money could be given to one artist while local artists and events organisers never got such large amounts.
The Federation spoke to various senior officials including the city manager and discovered that the reports were inaccurate and that there was only a proposal for sponsorship and no decision was made.
During talks with Team Nyovest, about how small businesses and artists should be involved in the event, it was agreed that the artist would plough 30% of whatever the city offered to local business.
At the time, the city explained that there was no such agreement for the event, which is scheduled for December 1.
On Thursday Phillip Sithole, deputy city manager of economic development and planning said the city’s final decision was to give the artist the stadium only.
“The decision is based on the fact that we are marketing the venue. We are to keep it busy and local informal traders, businesses and car guards will also benefit from this event. We were happy with their proposal because it speaks to tourism. We had numerous meetings with them to ensure that local businesses benefited from the event,” Sithole said.