Anton Groenewald, the City of Cape Town's executive director of tourism, events and economic development, resigned with immediate effect after the botched soccer tournament. File picture: Jason Boud Anton Groenewald, the City of Cape Town's executive director of tourism, events and economic development, resigned with immediate effect after the botched soccer tournament. File picture: Jason Boud
* In the article below, which appeared in the Cape Argus’s AM Edition and on IOL on Wednesday, the previous headline incorrectly stated that the Auditor-General would be probing the botched soccer tournament.
The AG’s office has confirmed it was looking into a complaint that was received on Wednesday.
The headline was not a true reflection of the comments made by the AG, who had confirmed it had received the complaint and would consider the complaint in line with its standing procedures. The Cape Argus and IOL regret the error.
Cape Town - The Auditor-General of South Africa will be investigating a complaint over the Cape Town Cup – a botched soccer tournament hosted by the city which cost ratepayers millions when the event failed to attract enough spectators.
The office’s spokesman, Africa Boso, confirmed on Tuesday that a request to look into the city’s financial management of the event had been received, adding that the Auditor-General would consider it in line with its standing procedures.
The complainant, Thomas Johnson, told the Cape Argus he was merely a “concerned citizen” who had become worried over how the city was spending taxpayers’ money. But his complaint has already gained traction, with the ANC and Cosatu supporting an investigation into the plans that led to the Cape Town Cup.
The tournament took place on July 24 and 26, and saw Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United square off against Portuguese visitors Sporting Lisbon and English Premiership side Crystal Palace.
The city was expecting to attract about 55 000 visitors, about the same number that turned up to watch Ajax’s clash with Manchester United in 2012.
But they didn’t even reach half that number, with only 22 000 tickets sold.
In the aftermath of the tournament, Anton Groenewald, executive director of tourism, events and economic development, resigned with immediate effect.
In the complaint, mailed to the Auditor-General on Tuesday, Johnson wrote that while he understood the need to market the city as an entertainment, business and tourist destination, this responsibility did not fall on local government.
“Municipalities in South Africa are not professional event and sports promoters permitted to use public funds on questionable entertainment activities,” he said.
The city spent R28 million on the event and it is unclear whether the ticket sales were able to mitigate much of the losses. Johnson asked the Auditor-General to “initiate an investigation into the expenditure of the Cape Town Cup and the financial decision-making processes concerning the tournament to determine if it was fruitless and wasteful expenditure, generally or specifically”.
Cosatu’s regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich, who has been a vocal critic of the tournament, supported the points outlined in the complaint.
He said the union was considering taking its own legal steps against the city, which could include lodging another complaint with the Auditor-General or even approaching the Public Protector’s office.
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said it was important to support the public’s complaints as it was ratepayers who had been affected by the poorly-planned tournament.
“We certainly support this, there is a lot of wasteful expenditure and it is about time somebody looked into it.”
The city’s mayoral member for Tourism and Economic Development, Garreth Bloor, said any investigation into the event would be welcomed.
“The council’s oversight role for the implementation of the city’s integrated development plan and strategy is only as strong as the information supplied to the structures of council by administration.
“All political processes of council were duly followed.”
He added that as the executive director, “it fell on Groenewald to take responsibility for the decisions made by the directorate”.
Attempts to contact Groenewald were unsuccessful.
kieran.legg@inl.co.za
Cape Argus