Former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina. Picture: Neil McCartney
Former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina has hit back at Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’ accusations that the African National Congress (ANC) is lying about stadium bookings in the province.
The ANC will be hosting its 113th birthday celebration in Khayelitsha, in a move it has insisted was deliberate.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says the party decided to host its event in Khayelitsha “to connect with people” after its dismal election result.
The party is not expecting members to travel from other provinces to attend the event either, said Mbalula.
However, on Thursday, Hill-Lewis claimed going to Khayelitsha may have been a last-minute resort for the ANC after failing to book bigger stadiums in the city centre.
The mayor claimed ANC comrades initially wanted to book the Cape Town and Athlone stadiums, but it was too late.
“For the record, the ANC did not book the Khayelitsha stadium ‘out of concern’ for residents. They’re lying,” said Hill-Lewis on Thursday.
“They booked it because they were too incompetent to book any other venue in time. They only tried to book Cape Town Stadium in mid-November 2024! It was already booked for a Stormers game. Then they tried Athlone Stadium. It was also booked, for the Klopse Carnival.
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“Several ANC office bearers called me asking for help in late November and even early December. They said we were trying to sabotage them by refusing the stadium. In November! Lol! The last conversation I had was 5 December, and by then they still hadn’t made a booking. So please don’t believe their nonsense.”
In response, Masina has challenged Hill-Lewis to provide the names of ANC office bearers who called him for the stadium bookings.
He said the ANC did not officially task anyone with calling him for stadium bookings.
“I can confirm that it was ANC’s decision to go back to the people and take these events where the people are. I don’t understand what the mayor is trying to do here because he’s not responsible for the booking of halls,” Masina told Newzroom Afrika on Friday.
“Ask the mayor to give you the name of the person who called him, he will not be able to do it because there is no such person.
“We have no record of any person who was officially sent by the ANC to book the stadium either in Cape Town or Athlone, so the mayor can assist us.”
Masina accused Hill-Lewis of trying to make the ANC look incompetent when the party knows the processes of booking Cape Town stadiums as it has done before.
“I am shocked as a former executive mayor that a mayor is now responsible for the booking of halls and stadiums. It’s quite ridiculous on his part, and I’m not sure which cheap political point he is trying to score here, because he’s not responsible for the ANC decision-making in terms of where we go and why we go there,” said Masina.
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“We’ve booked the Athlone stadium before, and we know exactly how the City of Cape Town and province proceeds with issues of bookings, so I’m quite shocked that he chose to go on social media to try and put ANC in a very bad light.”
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