BUFFALO City ratepayers have forked out almost R1-million on the cost of renting venues for council meetings since last September when renovations to the East London City Hall were undertaken.
The costs are expected to rise even further as BCM said it would continue using outside venues until December this year.
The bulk of the money has gone to the Abbotsford Christian Centre which hires out its facilities under a separate business entity, the Border Conference Centre (BCC).
More than R600000 was paid to BCC for the venue between October 2014 and May this year.
This is despite the municipality owning numerous venues such as the Cambridge Town Hall and Orient Theatre which could be suitable as council venues.
Municipal manager Andile Fani revealed last Wednesday that the renovations at City Hall were nowhere near completion.
A Daily Dispatch team visited the facility on Friday and found only two men wearing construction overalls in the corridors with some sealed paint containers nearby.
The men did not appear to be doing any work at the time.
The inside of the main hall was covered in dust but no renovations were seen to be taking place.
The venue hire costs exclude thousands of rands more in taxpayer money which has been paid to lease office space for the mayor, councillors and support staff for the same period.
The municipality has also incurred costs for new furniture at the temporary offices in Fleet Street, according to previous Dispatch reports.
Some damage was caused to City Hall last year February during a salary protest by South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) supporters. Office furniture and parts of the landmark building were damaged.
BCM communication manager Keith Ngesi at the time estimated the cost of the damages at more than R500000.
Fani’s communications colleague Thandy Matebese confirmed that the council had stopped
using the hall in September last year, and that at least 16 council meetings had been convened in hired venues at a cost of between R51000 and R65000 for each sitting.
DA councillor Terrence Fritz last week said the situation at City Hall was a problem. While the DA welcomed the renovations, he said they had not expected the work to take so long.
The longer it took, the more money it would cost, said Fritz.
Reporting on why an April 29 meeting was changed from the “usual” Border Conference Centre to the King David Hotel, a venue which did not accommodate members of the public, Fani revealed that the situation of hiring outside venues would continue until December.
The report stated that at least R64000 was used to hire the King David Hotel. The amount excludes costs for stationery needed by councillors during the meetings.
“The people who usually attend council meetings are about 160; the biggest concern is that you do not have control over who is going to attend from the communities,” Fani said. He said members of the public sometimes turned up, and sometimes didn’t, which made looking for bigger venues a challenge.
The metro has held at least 15 council meetings between October 2014 to date.
These included at least four special ones which were convened between April 29 and May after the then mayor Zukiswa Ncitha tabled a report recommending that Fani be investigated and put on special leave over allegations of misconduct.
Council has now mandated the municipal manager to submit a progress report on the status of the work at City Hall.
“We need to get a progress report into how far the city hall is in terms of its renovations,” ANC councillor Sakhumzi Caga said.
He said it was worrying that “we see that there is nothing that is being done at the moment”. — siphem@dispatch.co.za
Mega bill for council meetings
The costs are expected to rise even further as BCM said it would continue using outside venues until December this year.
The bulk of the money has gone to the Abbotsford Christian Centre which hires out its facilities under a separate business entity, the Border Conference Centre (BCC).
More than R600000 was paid to BCC for the venue between October 2014 and May this year.
This is despite the municipality owning numerous venues such as the Cambridge Town Hall and Orient Theatre which could be suitable as council venues.
Municipal manager Andile Fani revealed last Wednesday that the renovations at City Hall were nowhere near completion.
A Daily Dispatch team visited the facility on Friday and found only two men wearing construction overalls in the corridors with some sealed paint containers nearby.
The men did not appear to be doing any work at the time.
The inside of the main hall was covered in dust but no renovations were seen to be taking place.
The venue hire costs exclude thousands of rands more in taxpayer money which has been paid to lease office space for the mayor, councillors and support staff for the same period.
The municipality has also incurred costs for new furniture at the temporary offices in Fleet Street, according to previous Dispatch reports.
Some damage was caused to City Hall last year February during a salary protest by South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) supporters. Office furniture and parts of the landmark building were damaged.
BCM communication manager Keith Ngesi at the time estimated the cost of the damages at more than R500000.
Fani’s communications colleague Thandy Matebese confirmed that the council had stopped
using the hall in September last year, and that at least 16 council meetings had been convened in hired venues at a cost of between R51000 and R65000 for each sitting.
DA councillor Terrence Fritz last week said the situation at City Hall was a problem. While the DA welcomed the renovations, he said they had not expected the work to take so long.
The longer it took, the more money it would cost, said Fritz.
Reporting on why an April 29 meeting was changed from the “usual” Border Conference Centre to the King David Hotel, a venue which did not accommodate members of the public, Fani revealed that the situation of hiring outside venues would continue until December.
The report stated that at least R64000 was used to hire the King David Hotel. The amount excludes costs for stationery needed by councillors during the meetings.
“The people who usually attend council meetings are about 160; the biggest concern is that you do not have control over who is going to attend from the communities,” Fani said. He said members of the public sometimes turned up, and sometimes didn’t, which made looking for bigger venues a challenge.
The metro has held at least 15 council meetings between October 2014 to date.
These included at least four special ones which were convened between April 29 and May after the then mayor Zukiswa Ncitha tabled a report recommending that Fani be investigated and put on special leave over allegations of misconduct.
Council has now mandated the municipal manager to submit a progress report on the status of the work at City Hall.
“We need to get a progress report into how far the city hall is in terms of its renovations,” ANC councillor Sakhumzi Caga said.
He said it was worrying that “we see that there is nothing that is being done at the moment”. — siphem@dispatch.co.za
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