Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool says he was ”disinvited” to speak at Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane’s farewell dinner on Thursday.
”I was most astounded when my office was informed that, under instruction from the Mayor of Cape Town [Helen Zille], I had been disinvited to speak at your farewell,” Rasool wrote in a letter to the Archbishop.
The letter begins: ”It is with a heavy heart that I write to explain why I cannot be at your farewell this evening. I was quite determined to be there …”
Rasool wrote that ”apparently” the donation the city made to Ndungane’s farewell had given Zille the right to ”disinvite” Rasool.
City of Cape Town spokesperson Lisle Brown said Rasool had been invited and that his office had RSVP’d.
”He’s not here, but his office RSVP’d,” said Brown, who was at the dinner at the city’s convention centre.
Rasool wrote that while he was astounded, he was not surprised. He said it was a replay of the opening of the Green Point Stadium visitor’s centre, at which he had been invited to speak.
”She [Zille] informed me that either I was there or she was there. I then withdrew.”
Rasool said he found it deplorable that Zille could use public money as a reason to grind ”whatever personal or party-political axes she has”.
Rasool concluded: ”But, out of respect for you and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, I have decided not to be party to any sideshow that may result from my attendance, and detract from what should be a grand farewell to one of the finest sons produced by South Africa”.
However, speaking at the dinner, Zille said she had no idea why Rasool was not present.
”He said he would be here, but he’s not here.”
She apologised for his absence, saying she had expected him to be there, right up to the moment when the dignitaries entered the banquet hall at the Cape Town Convention Centre.
If there had been a misunderstanding between her office and Rasool’s, she apologised and would look into the matter, Zille said. – Sapa