Spring Queen venue in limbo

The City of Cape Town said it had made other venues available for Sactwu’s annual Spring Queen and Fashion Pageant.

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town on Thursday said it had made alternative venues available for Sactwu’s annual Spring Queen and Fashion Pageant.

With less than three months until the November deadline, the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union is still without a venue after the city hired out the Good Hope Centre to a film company for four times as much as it paid to hire the venue last year.

The city confirmed that it had rented the centre to Film Afrika at R200 000 a month from August until December.

Last year, the union hired the centre at a discounted price of R54 612 to host the pageant.

In a letter to the Cape Argus, Mayco member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development Garreth Bloor said the city had “identified a number of community facilities that would be available to affected vendors”.

He listed Belhar Indoor Centre, Goodwood Civic Centre, Tafelsig Community Hall, Artscape Theatre, Kenilworth Race Course, Athlone Stadium, Swartklip Indoor Centre and the Mitchells Plain Family Youth Centre.

Bloor said: “The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) has been suggested as the closest indoor option that would be suitable for a pageant with the city contributing to the financial costs.”

However, when asked how much money the city was preparing to contribute towards the hiring costs, Bloor said: “We are offering to cover the shortfall by means of a discount - not actual payment.”

He said when he approached the union in March with the offer, it was rejected. “No further discussions were held after the initial offer was made as there was no response to our offer.”

The union’s Fachmy Abrahams slammed the city’s response, saying it had not spoken about covering hiring costs but rather about “assisting” in finding alternative venues.

“We said to them that it will not work, the costs are inhibitive. We would have to hire all four halls for the amount of people we are hosting,” he said.

Abrahams had approached the CTICC a few months ago and his team estimated that it would cost about R2.5 million for the union to hire the venue. He said the centre had been unavailable for hire when his team approached managers.

“The CTICC charges per square metre, the venue costs would be more than our total budget,” he said.

Abrahams said the city had not been forthcoming with accommodating the vendors left out in the cold as a result of the city’s decision. He said that a lawyer’s letter was sent to the city but it had refused to respond.

When asked whether any complaints had been lodged, Bloor said: “Not to our knowledge.”

The union was planning a march in the CBD in opposition to the city renting out the Good Hope Centre to the film company, saying the centre should be for public use.

gadeeja.abbas@inl.co.za

Cape Argus