What was meant to be a R9,5-million splurge by the eThekwini municipality to seduce football’s big-wigs during the Fifa World Cup Preliminary draw in November last year is turning into a fiasco riddled with own goals.
The Mail & Guardian has learned that Julie-May Ellingson, head of the eThekwini metropolitan council’s strategic projects unit, overturned the appointment of service providers for the two Fifa-sanctioned functions hosted and paid for by the city.
Ellingson is accused of making new appointments favouring businessman Sifiso Zulu, who runs the eThekwini Events Company and has links with high-profile ANC leaders.
The special projects unit is responsible for driving Durban’s Fifa World Cup initiatives and oversees projects such as the building of the R2,6-billion Moses Mabhida stadium.
The appointments were made in relation to a R5,5-million beach party and the conversion of the King Zwelithini and Princess Magogo stadiums in Durban into fan parks for a live broadcast of the Orlando Pirates vs Kaizer Chiefs match played at Absa Stadium on November 24 last year. The fan parks project had a R4-million budget.
”The interviews had been done and the companies chosen and notified when Julie-May flew into a fit and recalled them, saying that only the eThekwini Events Company could appoint service providers,” said a source close to the adjudication process.
eThekwini Events Company is part of embattled Zulu’s portfolio of companies and has a three-year, R1,9-million contract to handle beach events for the city.
Zulu is known to be one of the key funders of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust and has strong links with leaders in the ANC’s eThekwini region, including provincial transport minister Bheki Cele and eThekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe.
He has lucrative contracts with the city, including a R30-million annual contract to manage its parking meters, and is a director of the deeply endebted uShaka Marine World, which was built by the municipality in 2004 and which the municipality has since bailed out to the tune of R147-million.
After an interview process on October 11 when 11 invited companies were asked to make presentations for the catering, decor and technical aspects of the beach party, Eat Greek was selected as the catering contractor, Barcode to provide the alcohol, Function Decor for decoration and Selbys to provide sound engineering and other technical support for the party and management of the broadcast events at the fan parks.
Eat Greek was subsequently replaced by Blue Strawberry and uShaka Marine World’s food and beverage department for the catering and Barcode by Liquid Chefs. The technical aspects of the fan parks were handed to Kingston Sound.
According to an insider uShaka was not originally invited to tender because ”they had served food at a previous beach function and the department of health came in and removed the chicken they were serving”.
The owner of one of the service providers initially awarded a contract, who asked not to be named, said Ellingson had called to say that the initial selection process was ”flawed”. But there had been no follow-up selection process.
”We were keen to reapply, but their attitude became quite patronising,” said the service provider. ”It was as if they were patting us on the head and telling us to ‘run along now’.”
A former council employee showed the M&G an email sent by Ellingson to Selby’s director, Ron Selby, notifying the company of the cancellation of the initial appointment.
In it Ellingson says that a previous email notifying the company of their successful bid was ”sent in error”.
She says that the strategic projects unit member who sent the email, Ginny Eslick, ”is an employee of the municipality and as such had no mandate to deal with service providers to the Ethekwini Events Company”.
But the M&G is also in possession of the notes from the interview process where members on the panel, which include representatives of the eThekwini Events Company and Eslick, confirmed the appointments.
”All members of the panel agreed that Ginny Eslick will send a congratulatory email” to the successful companies, it said. The municipality’s request for a proposal document also outlines that Eslick, as a representative of the special projects unit, should have been on the selection panel which appointed the service providers.
Questions were also raised about why money for the events was deposited directly into Ethekwini Events Company’s bank account when it had run the event as a joint venture with Awesome Africa.
At the time of going to press neither Ellingson nor Sutcliffe had responded to various emails, voice and text messages requesting comment.