Pretoria - Some city officials implicated in the ill-fated Dinokeng TribeOne Music Festival in Tshwane had been interviewed, but it was unclear as to whether they would face prosecution or not.
The city had widely been criticised for paying an amount of R10 million to the US artist Nicki Minaj, who was billed to perform at the three-day event. The amount was never recovered.
TribeOne was scheduled to take place in September 2014, but was cancelled at the 11th hour after the organisers claimed the city had failed to meet the infrastructure development deadline. Executive mayor Solly Msimanga said interviews were also conducted with people implicated in the city hall and mayoral residence rehabilitation projects that went wrong.
“How we will be proceeding and if there are some officials that will be prosecuted is something that we will let the investigative unit to deal with,” he said.
Street lights line the dusty street that leads to Dinokeng just outside of Cullinan where the TribeOne festival was to take place. File picture: Masi Losi
The probe into the failed musical concert was one of the 135 forensic investigations conducted at the city. he said.
Msimanga said a probe into Dinokeng had led to some new information related to a big international company that money was paid to.
“Some documents showing the amount of money that was paid and to whom it was paid were requested from the banks, he said.
A billboard on the N4 advertising the cancelled TribeOne Music Festival. File picture: Phill Magakoe
Two weeks ago, the South African Communist Party in Tshwane called on Msimanga to institute an investigation into allegations of corruption related to the Dinokeng TribeOne festival.
According to the party, the DA-led administration in Tshwane has no interest in fighting corruption.