Durban — Pressure is mounting on Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) to come clean on the presence of an ANC-branded election campaign truck on its premises.
Opposition parties have cast doubt on the ICC's explanation that it has a lease agreement with the ANC, and demanded that the municipality produce the documentation to prove it does. Besides the agreement, the opposition are questioning the ethics of government entity dealings with one political party.
Speaking to the Daily News on Monday, ICC spokesperson Sandile Makhanya said the ICC has an annual renewable legal lease agreement with the ANC to park its vehicles on the premises, with a payment plan.
Makhanya stated that the ICC has a list of lease agreements, including one with the Health Department.
The IFP executive committee leader in eThekwini Municipality, Mdu Nkosi, said he did not believe the ICC and demanded to see documentation. Nkosi said if there was an agreement council would have been made aware and the lease would have also been extended to other political parties.
“I will write to the council and request to see the agreement. It is also strange that the ANC appeared unaware of the agreement since it did not say that on Sunday in its comment. It is also strange that the ICC always comes to the eThekwini council for financial bailouts. The IFP will not support this any more because the ICC has shown that it is an ANC branch.”
The DA’s Thabani Mthethwa said the party would want to see invoices and the date when the lease was signed. Mthethwa said his party now doubts the credibility of the ICC because of having dealings with a political party.
African Democratic Change (ADeC) leader Visvin Reddy said that it was strange that the municipality entity would enter into such an agreement with ANC.
The matter was first raised by the IFP, which demanded an explanation from both the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal as well as the eThekwini Municipality on why an ANC-branded election campaign truck was parked at the (ICC) premises.
The IFP said it was an abuse of its “power”, adding the entity belonged to the municipality and was not a political party’s playground.
“The fact that an ANC truck is parked there speaks exactly to how the party (ANC) in the province thinks it can do as it pleases. It is also wildly baffling as to how the Durban ICC allowed this to happen, as that facility is an international venue – it does not look good if political party vehicles are parked there.
“This clearly indicates that there are many under-handed dealings happening between the ANC and the Durban ICC.
“It was clear that the ANC in the province was using the ICC premises as its premises,” Nkosi said.
Since the ICC’s values state that it acts with honesty, subscribes to a high level of ethics, is transparent and has no hidden agendas, the entity must transparently provide answers as to why an ANC truck has been parked at its premises for over a week now, Nkosi said.
On Sunday ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele accused the IFP of being “crybabies” but appeared not to be aware of the agreement saying since the party had its own storage for vehicles, they would follow up to check why the truck was there.
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