Durban - Being the “party capital” of the country could soon be a thing of the past for Durban after eThekwini Municipality slashed its budget to fund events hosted in the city.
In the 2022/23 budget passed by the council yesterday, the budget set aside to fund events in the city has been reduced to just R16 million. This is almost half of what it was in the 2019/20 financial year.
A report stated that the events budget has been reduced from R30.9m in the 2019/20 financial year.
Some opposition parties have previously raised concerns that the city was not in the position to support events. DA councillor Nicole Graham said: “There are still numerous parties and events being hosted under the Parks, Recreation and Culture and Durban Tourism budgets. We believe our tourism industry requires support and attention.
“We will support reasonable events that have demonstrable events for eThekwini’s economy. We do not believe in the funding of endless extravaganzas while the city is in the worst state that it has ever been,” she said.
Busi Radebe of ActionSA said: “We support the cut in the events budget because as a city that has suffered a triple blow due to Covid-19, the unrest and the recent floods we cannot afford to spend the initially proposed amount,” she said.
During discussions at the executive committee meeting on Monday, head of Economic Development Philip Sithole, said the events hosted by the city had huge economic benefits. He said the value of events and its impact on tourism and the city’s economy should not be underestimated.
Speaking on the passing of the budget as a whole, Graham said the DA was voting against the budget as “the current tabled budget is not the kind of back to basics, priority-driven budget that we would like to see”.
Radebe said ActionSA also did not support the budget.
“We are not supporting the budget because it fails to cater for points that were raised by ActionSA. These include insourcing, recovering funds owed by government departments as well as reducing business tariffs.”
The budget passed with votes from the ANC, IFP and other parties.
THE MERCURY