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Municipal celebrations must be in moderation

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Dear Editor

The IFP encourages all municipalities to plan modest Freedom Day celebrations, which will not burden expenditure. This comes after reports that the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro municipality is planning to spend R15 million for Freedom Day cerebrations.

“The abuse of municipal funds will have a negative impact in the provision of basic services to the people. This must be stopped and investigated” said IFP spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Peter Smith MP.

The IFP is fully supportive of the Freedom Day celebrations, but it feels very strongly that service delivery should not suffer as a result.

He further stated that “It is alleged that the municipality will produce 50 000 t-shirts and 720 000 booklets to be printed; one can only wonder what colour the t-shirts will be. The most concerning situation is that the National Treasury has instructed the municipality to stop all non-priority expenditure. This money could have been spent in providing people with RDP houses and in eradicating the bucket toilet system in the Metro”

The IFP calls on the Eastern Cape MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mlibo Qoboshiyane and the ANC provincial leadership to urgently intervene by instituting their own investigation into this matter.

This is an abuse of the public purse for ANC electioneering purposes in the name of Freedom Day.

Mr Peter Smith MP
IFP Spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs

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