Seniors lunch date bungle irks councillor

The annual ward 97 senior citizens Christmas function, which is hosted annually by eThekwini Municipality, has been rescheduled to 27 December – a decision that has come under fire from the local ward councillor.

“The administration of the function, effectively having been taken away from the speaker’s office by the mayor’s office, comes at considerable cost to organisational transparency,” said ward 97 councillor Andre Beetge.

“Not only did this one-sided decision result in the disbanding of the committee which included the councillor but questions are now being raised about the awarding of tenders, after branch members or sympathisers of the governing party are reputed to enjoy extended preference, despite an apparent tender process,” he added.

Having had no communication about the matter, Cllr Beetge secured an audience with the relevant manager on Monday, 3 December. He was given a preliminary date for the annual seniors lunch to take place on Monday, 10 December, which was subject to another planning meeting later that day. This despite tenders only closing at the close of Wednesday, 5 December.

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The date for the ward 97 party was subsequently confirmed at 3.30pm on Wednesday, before the tender period closed. Retirement homes, interest groups and support structures were hastily informed, so as to ensure their participation and to give Toti’s senior citizens an opportunity to relax at the government’s cost.

The IEC, SASSA, Home Affairs and health department were asked to set up tables to assist seniors and alleviate their need to travel and queue. But, according to Cllr Beetge, the function was subsequently cancelled at 3.15pm on Friday, 7 December and rescheduled to 27 December.

He questioned the rescheduling, as the new date follows after a series of public holidays which could deprive service providers from procuring fresh produce, make ticket distribution difficult, be somewhat of an anti-climax as Christmas will have already past and many seniors will possibly already have committed to family activities. However, city officials remained steadfast in their decision.

“It would appear opposition councillors in particular are being deliberately excluded from these decisions, as it affords the governing party an opportunity to extend tenders to friends and family,” said Cllr Beetge.

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This follows the disaster of the 2017 function, where there was insufficient food for attendees and just 24 plates were used to serve hundreds. These were washed over and over again. There were also shortages of glasses, ice and fruit.

While last year’s tender indicated 600 people needed to be served, Beetge personally collected every ticket as people departed and counted less than 500. “Similarly the undistributed hampers are suppo-sedly returned to who knows where for re-distribution to who knows who, but 600 hampers remain ‘supposedly’ procured and paid for per ward.”

Also entertainment, where like in 2013, five random people were each paid R100 to perform one gospel song and a poem, but the service provider, who wasn’t even on site, received R3,500. In contrast, local DJ Paul subsequently performed free of charge in the interest of the community.

At this point in time, my office cannot confirm whether the senior citizens function will or will not take place on 27 December. We have not been informed who the service providers are and likewise, to date, we have not been issued with any tickets.

Should this happen prior to the SUN’s last edition, this will be communicated to residents, groups and institutions but we will not be entertaining any enquiries to this effect on either 25 or 26 December,” said Cllr Beetge. The SUN contacted eThekwini Municipality for comment but no response was forthcoming.