Durban - Once again, questions are being asked about the expenditure related to the Essence Festival hosted by the eThekwini municipality last year.
On Monday Zwakele Mncwango, the DA provincial leader, wrote to city manager Sipho Nzuza requesting that a forensic investigation be instituted to probe expenditure related to the festival.
In the letter, Mncwango claims that the cost of hosting the festival in 2016 had ballooned to R103 million, despite council being told after the event that they forked out R95m.
“The event took place in November 2016 and since then we have been requesting audited reports on expenditure. Unfortunately no response or clear details have been provided to us,” said Mncwango.
The DA believes there were many irregularities and possible corruption which resulted in the ballooning of costs.
The latest claims come just a week after the city launched this year’s leg of the festival.
A furious Philip Sithole, head of the business support, tourism and markets unit in eThekwini, said the claims by Mncwango were baseless.
“He needs to say what he is basing his claims on. If he says there are invoices, where are those invoices? It could be that he is basing his information on unofficial and speculative reports that are being circulated,” he said.
Sithole would not say who was behind the so-called unofficial reports, but said he had reported that matter to the city manager. Sithole said the project was approved by all parties, including the DA, in 2014.
He maintained that the expenditure was R95m, adding that this included programmes which were already budgeted for and were later incorporated into the festival “as they were of a similar nature”.
He accused Mncwango of deliberately misleading the public. “What he does not want is to see Durban having anything that would rival the Cape Town Jazz Festival. Now he is spreading these lies because he can see we are growing.”
While initially about R35m was budgeted for the 2016 festival, a report was tabled before council last year and a presentation made to the city’s executive committee (exco) showing that the total expenditure was expected to be about R95m.
Both the council and exco approved the expenditure, with the shortfall being funded through savings made on other items.
Sithole said the cost for this year’s event would be less than what it was last year because the music shows had been moved from the Moses Mabhida stadium to the ICC, a smaller venue.
He said the budget would be presented before the city council.
Mncwango said he wanted the investigation to look at processes used to appoint service providers, all transactions made to service providers, and who was behind the decision to overspend.
Sithole said the festival had had massive spin-offs for local businesses and artists.
“We have more than 20 success stories,” Sithole said, adding that some of these included partnerships and deals signed between local businesspeople and their US counterparts.
“Again, councillor Mncwango never speaks about these returns, instead he fabricates budgets,” Sithole said.
The DA said it wanted the investigation to be commissioned as soon as possible.