AS one of Port Elizabeth’s monstrously exploited ratepayers I would really like to know how much longer the financial carnage in this metropole can be allowed to continue.

How do my fellow ratepayers feel about us paying R2-million for a pop concert that never happened (“R2m sponsorship under spotlight after concert flop”, The Herald, December 22)?

There is probably not a single person who actually pays rates that would have attended the event even if by some miracle it had actually happened. So what happened to our money?

That amount of money can’t simply have evaporated into thin air and there must be some means of recovering it.

Or has it, like so many other ANC conjuring tricks, just disappeared into some fat cat’s secret bank account in Switzerland?

I can’t pretend to speak for the other captive ratepayers of this metropole, but it is obvious we are all sitting ducks and our elected councillors appear to be doing very little to ensure we get a fair deal. This situation cannot go on forever, eventually our patience and money will run out and then the s... will really hit the fan. – Mike Jones, Essexvale, Port Elizabeth

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NMBM spokesmen, Kupido Baron and Roland Williams, were lyrical about the tourism benefits the metro could expect with the latter referring to millions of rands worth of television (?) and media coverage the Bay would reap in the “weeks” building up to the event and the months following the event.

Despite Baron’s assurance the metro had learnt from its past mistakes the promoter suddenly needed more money, artists were in the dark, entrance fees reduced from R200 to R50 and talk in Johannesburg was this was turning into another disaster like, inter alia, the Bay’s international soccer fiasco.

The statement by councillor Maria Hermaans on behalf of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality on the festival was also less than reassuring, and served only to try and dissociate the council from all but the sponsorship.

The negative publicity situations like these create does not promote tourism or the notion that we are a world class city, worthy of hosting big events. I trust ratepayers will get feedback regarding the ultimate benefits of the R2-million.

I don’t think a nonsensical “the situation is being monitored” response will be acceptable. – André Van Heerden, Glen Hurd, Port Elizabeth

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IT seems the guardians of the metro residents’ purse have made another fatal error in allocating R2-million to the latest fiasco in a progression of concert failures. Williams issued a statement to the effect the metro would continue to support music extravaganzas as it was good for tourism etc. Unfortunately the continued failures of the festivals and the inability of the promoters to do the job is earning our city the reputation of a place to avoid.

The haste with which vast amounts of our money is wastefully allocated is shocking, as every investigation afterwards points to the same set of problems. Promoters draw up a “business plan” or set out a scenario under a fancy letterhead.

The money is approved so speedily no check of the background of the promoters is done. Witness the failed Busta Rhymes concert for which the acting acting municipal manager approved R250000 without any consultation (“Fury at Busta no-show”, The Herald, November 30).

Unfortunately the situation is symptomatic of the political mess which the metro finds itself in. One of probably the top three municipal managers in the country is on “voluntary paid leave”.

The residents have subsequently to fund an acting municipal manager at R100000 per month, who went on holiday. The acting acting municipal manager, a third level official (but the right political connections) will start drawing a municipal manager’s salary after 10 days.

We therefore find ourselves having to pay for three municipal managers at a cost of almost R300000 per month, all because of political infighting.

Small wonder that a cheque of R250000 was given to a relatively unknown promoter for a failed concert. The level of decision making has sunk to an all-time low as officials have to obey instructions passed down to the metro.

The Public Protector will have to be involved in an investigation into reckless expenditure as the metro is set on a downward spiral. Coming from an unprecedented run of two successive unqualified audits one gets the impression that accountability and order is not acceptable to certain players and gain can be better made out of a chaotic situation.

Our city desperately needs strong leadership – the time to save the situation is running out fast. – Chris Roberts, DA spokesman, economic development and tourism, Port Elizabeth