South African taxpayers are likely to foot the lion’s share of the R550-million bill for the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Rapport said government ministers last week dodged all questions surrounding the cost of the WSSD, claiming it could only be assessed once a final audit had been completed.
It added that it was clear that government would battle to stick to the original budget, especially in view of the fact that a large part of donor funds promised had not been received as yet.
According to the newspaper an original cost of R550-million was budgeted by Johannesburg World Summit Company (Jowsco), a section 21 company formed by government to run the summit.
Government undertook to fund R200-million at national,
provincial and local level, while R120-million was promised by EU donor countries and R230-million by other donors.
Shortly before the onset of the WSSD, Jowsco executive Moss Mashishi said only about 80% of these funds had been received.
Rapport said donors included semi-government institutions such as Eskom, the Post Office, South African Airways and Telkom, which clearly indicated government’s share would exceed R200-million.
Last week specialist summit newspaper, Terraviva, stated that it was wrong for a relatively poor country such as South Africa to pay the largest share of the bill, and that the UN Secretariat had warned all UN members to act frugally as the summit was being held in a region plagued by food shortages and famine.
Essop Pahad, minister in the president’s office, on Wednesday intercepted media questions directed to Mashishi during a press conference and said that government as main shareholder in Jowsco had to report the summit costs to parliament.
The newspaper said it was now feared that this debacle could simply be a repeat of last year’s racism summit in Durban, where government also had to scratch for funds to pay the R100-million bill after donors showed reluctance and unwillingness to pay.
Rapport also said Minister of the Environment and Tourism Valli Moosa was among ministers who refused to speculate on possible shortfalls.
Moosa said the success of the summit and advantages for South Africa by far exceeded the costs.
”We rehabilitated Johannesburg’s image as crime hub with this single effort and no money could buy such and advantage,” Moosa said. – Sapa