Cape Town mayor Helen Zille is indulging in political grandstanding over the Green Point Stadium, mayoral committee member Simon Grindrod has suggested.
He has also criticised what he says is the city’s ”inability to drive such a high-profile initiative”.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, his office said he was extremely concerned at the latest halting of the project.
Zille announced on Tuesday that the R2,7-billion budget would not be approved until the city had an assurance that last-minute cost escalations of R180-million would be covered by the National Treasury.
”[Grindrod] is appealing to mayor Zille, Premier [Ebrahim] Rasool and the National Treasury not to allow political grandstanding to derail Cape Town’s number one opportunity to create jobs, unity and direct investment,” the Grindrod statement said.
Grindrod, the Independent Democrats’s caucus leader in the council, is also mayoral committee member for economic development.
He said in the statement that this was the fourth time the city had halted the stadium project.
”Our inability to drive such a high-profile initiative is sending a very negative signal to the international investor community in a city already seen as Slaapstad,” the statement quoted him as saying.
”It is totally unacceptable that fundamental questions surrounding financing are still being asked on the very day the city is supposed to award the stadium construction tender.”
He said he feared that political differences between the three spheres of government were playing themselves out ”at the expense of the hopes and dreams every Capetonian has for our future”.
Grindrod’s statements stand in marked contrast to Zille’s assessment of the city’s role. She told a media briefing on Tuesday that Cape Town had faced a stadium challenge ”much bigger than any other city has faced”.
”But we’ve been absolutely committed to it, and worked day and night to secure the outcome, and have made fantastic progress over the last six months,” she said. — Sapa