DA accuses Gauteng sports MEC of spending R7 million on sports awards

The DA has accused Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) MEC, Mbali Hlophe, of spending R7 million on last year’s Gauteng Sports Awards while athletes and artists continue to struggle.

But Hlophe’s department has disputed the DA’s claims, with her spokesperson insisting that the party is misrepresenting the facts around the annual event that honours athletes, teams, administrators, and media personalities who have made an impact on South African sport.

Three-hour celebratory event

DA MPL and spokesperson for SACR in the province, Kingsol Chabalala, on Tuesday, said he had been reliably informed that the department had spent R7 million for the Gauteng Sports Awards in November, which apparently lasted for only three hours.

Chabalala said this was despite the DA cautioning the department on excessive spending on the event while many artists and athletes in Gauteng had lost their livelihoods due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns.

“There was nothing spectacular about this event as guests were served a three-course meal with a soft drink or juice and only three renowned artists performed at the event,” he said in a statement.

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Chabalala demanded a breakdown from the department on how the millions of rand were spent on the awards show, considering that it was an in-door event and there was a limitation in terms of the number of people who could attend due to Covid regulations.

“The money spent on the Gauteng Sports Awards could have been used to provide the Covid-19 relief grant to 1,166 athletes and artists at a rate of R6,000 each.

“For far too long, the DA has been calling on the department to reprioritise its budget to ensure that the money is allocated to render services to our people instead of wasting money on celebratory events.”

DA ‘mischievous’

In a written response to The Citizen‘s questions on the matter, the Gauteng SACR’s spokesperson Nkosana Mtolo confirmed that the department had budgeted R9 million for the 2021 Sports Awards, but only spent R6.9 million instead.

He said the budget for the event also went to the prize money for the winning athletes, the car given away as part of the competition and towards the live production by SABC1.

Mtolo stressed that the department was focused on cutting its expenditure on major events in order to allocate more funding to other projects targeted at community development.

“The MEC indicated at the beginning of her tenure that the department would cut its expenditure on events, so more funds are allocated to our school sports and arts Wednesday leagues development programme.

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“The programme is geared at entrenching sports and arts in previously disadvantaged schools so kids can be productively engaged, so they may be steered away from engaging in dangerous substances, such as drugs and alcohol, and teenage pregnancy,” he said.

With regards to the DA’s claim about the department wasting money on hiring venues for the sports awards instead of using government venues, Mtolo said the big cost driver for the event was in fact the creative industry.

This, he said, included artists who performed at the awards show as well as all technical expertise to host the event.

“The DA exposes its minuscule comprehension of the gig economy as it assumes that hosting an event is only about the venue.

“There are many creatives involved, and therefore jobs created out of events. It’s in this regard the province has a Gauteng Events Strategy in place which guides this important area of work in strengthening our gig economy”.

‘Excessive spending’

According to Chabalala, from the 2012/2013 financial year to the 2020/2021 financial year, the department had spent over R61 million on the event.

But Mtolo also disputed this saying the DA was basing its claims on “thumb sucked and unverified amounts”.

He said to date, the department had spent R19.6 million on Covid relief funds for struggling athletes and artists, of which close to 3,000 had benefited.

“Gauteng was further congratulated by Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa for being the number one province in providing the largest amount for relief, accounting for 44% of the national count. The Western Cape where the DA governs accounts for only 11%.”

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