It has been three months since the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality said it would take control of the city’s flagship stadium, but two days before it was meant to get the keys to the facility, it backtracked.
The city now wants the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) to continue to pay the stadium’s staff but instructed the facility’s management to report directly to the municipality.
However, the MBDA is not budging, saying the handover of the stadium is a court-mandated process that cannot be unilaterally decided upon.
On Tuesday, municipality lawyer Shayne de Beer, of Joubert Galpin Searle attorneys, wrote to the agency, saying the handover process was complex and required more time to complete in full compliance with the law.
While requesting an extension to finalise the necessary consultations, De Beer said the stadium’s management would now be reporting to the executive director for economic development, tourism and agriculture, Wandisile Makwabe, but that its staff would stay on the MBDA payroll.
Last week, concerned stadium employees protested outside City Hall to demand answers from the metro regarding their future.
This was after the stadium’s technical adviser, Sandiswa Silwana, wrote to former acting city manager Ted Pillay, telling him that the MBDA had notified them that September would be the final month the municipal entity would pay their salaries.
In July, mayor Babalwa Lobishe sent shock waves through rugby circles when she terminated the mandate of the MBDA to manage the stadium, just days before the Test between the Springboks and Italy.
However, in a last-minute reversal ahead of the big match, the municipality agreed in court to allow the agency to manage the venue for an additional 90 days.
Judge Denzel Potgieter issued an order that barred the municipality and Lobishe from interfering with the day-to-day management of the stadium, with the agency carrying the ball for the next three months.
Lobishe was ordered to identify and nominate a representative who would be granted full access to the stadium’s management to ensure a seamless handover.
De Beer said this week that an extension was now needed to finalise the necessary consultations, administrative arrangements and alignment of operational responsibilities.
But he informed MBDA chief executive Anele Qaba that the stadium’s management would now report directly to Makwabe, even as staff remained on the agency’s payroll.
“In the interim, we confirm that all employees currently employed by the MBDA will remain in the employ of the MBDA until the conclusion of the Section 197 process and the formal transfer of employment has been effected,” De Beer’s letter reads.
“Accordingly, the MBDA will continue to carry the responsibility for the payment of salaries, employee benefits and all related employer obligations until such time as the transfer has been legally and administratively finalised.”
Through its own lawyers, the agency hit back, saying that without an agreed amendment of the court order, which entailed the full and complete transfer of the stadium, including all related assets, liabilities, staff and operational responsibilities, the status quo remained.
The agency’s attorney, BLC director Sonja Tifloen, said any variation must be effected either by agreement between the parties and made an order of court, or through a formal application.
“It cannot be implemented unilaterally,” she wrote.
“In the absence of such a variation, the status quo remains, which entails the full and complete transfer of the stadium, including all related assets, liabilities, staff and operational responsibilities.
“Furthermore, we wish to place on record that any proposed variation must be comprehensive and not piecemeal.
“The court order contemplates an integrated and complete handover, and any deviation must be equally holistic in nature.”
In September, Qaba sent a memo to the stadium’s staff saying that, in line with the high court order in July and Pillay’s directive, their employment would be transferred to the municipality with effect from October 9.
“The MBDA will administer the final salary and benefits payments due to you on September 25. Thereafter, the municipality will assume all responsibility for pay and benefits from October 1,” the memo said.
When contacted this week, Makwabe said the stadium’s management would be temporarily housed at the economic development, tourism and agriculture directorate until the council decided on the best model for managing the facility.
“[We are] seized with that now. It’s a process,” he said.
Municipality spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said the issue remained subject to the court order currently in effect, and that the city’s lawyers were reviewing the latest developments to determine the appropriate legal and administrative way forward.
“We wish to caution all stakeholders and members of the media against drawing premature conclusions or speculating on the outcome while the legal process is still unfolding.
“We further request that all parties co-operate fully and refrain from making public pronouncements that may pre-empt or compromise the integrity of the ongoing legal and governance process.
“Once the review is complete, council, as the shareholder authority, will consider the findings and make a final decision in line with the municipality’s governance and legal obligations,” he said.
The Herald
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