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R2 Million of Ratepayers Money on ANC Councillor Tickets to Springboks All Blacks Test?

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With the warm afterglow permeating my being after the magnificent test in Port Elizabeth this past weekend I felt once again the return of a warm and fuzzy feeling towards our council.

But, a single email alerting me to a post on that Vleisboek site served to make me all grumpy once again.

Not wanting to lose that fuzzy warm feeling and full of faith in our ‘reformed new council’ who by now should understand the plight of the ratepayer I gently released a question to our Communications department asking them to please let me know post haste what the true situation is with regards to the spending of an estimated R2 million of RATEPAYERS money on tickets for a select group (read ANC) of councillors to attend the test match.

As yesterday drew to a close I received two other communications from our communications department – proving to me that they were at work, but NOT ONE communication pertaining to my enquiry.

Now, going on past (and very infrequent) questions that I have posed to this so called communications department I think that they will do exactly the same as they have always done – IGNORE me until I go away.

Anyway, below is my 22 August 11:50 am email enquiry to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal Communications Department:

As I have said before we really need to set up some form of monitoring in order to answer the type of stuff we see below from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/municipal.watchdog1#!/municipal.watchdog1/posts/113794532053934

Obviously many people have seen this and I would dearly like to publish the truth – could you comment please.

Municipal Watchdog Port Elizabeth.

Nelson Mandela Bay??? Spent 2 million for ANC members to watch rugby match on Saturday between the Bokke and All Blacks second team! Food transport tickets and booze!

And no, Snookums I wasn’t questioning the aversion that the All Blacks team was a second team!

At the end of the day I then sent an enquiry to the ‘enemy’ (the ‘enemy’ as in the official opposition in Council – the Democratic Alliance!) asking if they had heard anything. It turns out that one of the not so undercover DA operatives had already queried; “……whether any tickets for the test match played on Saturday were made available for councillors. If yes, on what basis were they distributed and how were councillors notified.”

Of course the not so swift initial reply was a stalling ‘cagey’ one; “Cllr Lobishe is attending a mayoral session today. She will revert back to you as soon as possible.”

Early this morning I sent a gentle BUMP reminder to communications and (IF I GET A REPLY) will publish it as an update below.

In the interim I find it hard to believe that the Council would be ‘guilty’ of the underhanded tactic of dipping into Ratepayers money in order to attend a test match and, worse of all, only benefit a certain political group. Please restore my faith in humanity and tell me that it is NOT true!

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

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Comments

  1. So did our council spend R2 million on a favoured grouping of councillors to attend the Springboks All Blacks test?

    So far I have asked three times for an answer and am still being ignored.

    The ‘reasonable man’ test then tells me that there MUST be some truth in the allegation.

    It makes me so SAD! 

  2. 2 million rands ?????????? for tickets, even booze & food???????? R 2 000 000 ???????? 55 years of my income!!!!!!!!!! for a party?????????????(I don’t believe that those gentlemen were even interested in the game, never mind their wives/girl friends) . When will the voters wake up?????? Non-ANC councillors, keep on at this at every opportunity!!

  3. Progress with young Kupido Baron from Communications who just dropped me a note asking;

    Alan,
    I saw the facebook page. What is it that you’d like us to comment on?

    To which I replied:

    Is it true?

    If it ISN’T true then a statement saying that the Facebook miscreant is a lying bastard that needs to get a LIFE.

    If it IS true then a statement laying out which councillors attended the match, how they were selected, what the costs to the ratepayer were, who else was present and what the potential investment in the region will be from the exercise.

  5. Kupido Baron writes in reply to my question asked for the THIRD time:

    It definitely seems like that because you need either the Executive Mayor or the Municipal Manager to approve that expenditure. It seems like an attempt to discredit both the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the ANC.

  6. One more contribution from Kupido:

    That posting is complete nonsense and the work of a person with political aims… we only had one suite at the stadium.

  7. One more contribution from Kupido:

    That posting is complete nonsense and the work of a person with political aims… we only had one suite at the stadium.