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Cape Town - Cosatu in the Western Cape on Wednesday called on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate the financial implications of the failed Cape Town Cup soccer event and especially the role of the City's mayor, Patricia de Lille.
The inaugural Cape Town Cup took place at the Cape Town Stadium in Green Point on July 24 and 26 and according to Cosatu allegedly cost the City R30m.
The union has called on the Public Protector to investigate what it claims to be the mismanagement of the soccer event by the City and "the failure of the mayor to consult with local soccer organisations", supposedly because of their affinity to the ANC.
Cosatu's request follows a call by Madonsela for "ordinary South Africans" to let her office know when they think the Constitution "is being trampled on". She wants the public to then do something about it, News24 reported on Monday.
She regards the work of a Public Protector primarily to review the administrative action of the state.
"You just come and tell us what the problem is as you understand it in your most basic words; we then take it and re-frame it because we are the ones who have to make sense of it and interpret the law", she said in an interview with the legal publication De Rebus.
Cosatu said in a statement "the wasteful and frivolous expenditure of R30m of the City of Cape Town's funds due to this exercise must be investigated by the Public Protector".
The union federation also called for De Lille to be suspended while an investigation is being done.
Cosatu alleges that it has "reliable information that the mayor had insisted that the Cape Town Cup must proceed in spite of the obvious fact that it was going to be an unmitigated disaster".
Ticket prices originally ranged from R200 to R400 for the double-headers, but was drastically reduced closer to the match dates.
Money lost because of the recent Cape Town Cup soccer tournament has already led to the resignation of Anton Groenewald, the City of Cape Town's executive director of tourism, events and marketing.
The union claims De Lille is trying to mitigate her role in the failure and resultant financial loss of the Cape Town Cup and wants the Auditor General to investigate "how the funds wasted could have been applied to provide backyarders with much needed services".
De Lille's spokesperson Pierinne Leukes told Fin24 on Wednesday that the City respects the right of Cosatu to refer this matter to the Public Protector. "The City of Cape Town will give its full cooperation," said Leukes.
Last week ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman said the Cape Town Cup "fiasco" must be laid squarely at the DA’s door. In his view the resignation of Groenewald was "to take the fall for his political overlords".
“This is a massive abuse of taxpayer money by the DA under the direct oversight of the mayor and at least her mayoral committee member," said Fransman.
Councillor Garreth Bloor, mayoral committee member for tourism, events and economic development, told Fin24 last week that Groenewald "realised that the leadership of the City is held to account when money is lost. That is why he resigned".
"Teething problems are to be expected. We will learn from them and look forward to the next event as we continue our efforts to make Cape Town the events capital of Africa," said Bloor.
"We envisaged the event to be a catalyst for a significant increase in local, national and international tourist numbers. This premise was based on the Manchester United match that the City hosted in 2012 which was a resounding success."
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