The Cape Town Cup, which took place on 24 and 26 July last weekend, is the biggest Football Flop the City of Cape Town has thrown ratepayers’ money at, estimated to be R 30 million!

I am not a supporter of the ANC politics in the City of Cape Town Council meetings nor those at provincial level, but the reports yesterday, quoting both Tony Ehrenreich and Marius Fransman, made me sit up and take note.

Driving past the Cape Town Stadium last Friday at 18h00, the starting time of the first match, I was surprised at how easy it was to get to the V&A Waterfront, my usual route leading past the Stadium. Other than the Stadium itself, everything was in darkness, as loadshedding had just commenced at that time, but it made no difference to the traffic situation, there being no blockages created by cars or soccer fans on foot! I could deduce that things were not going well inside the Stadium, having seen reports that the ticket prices had been drastically slashed a few days earlier. A Kfm announcer reported from inside the Stadium on Friday that it was very empty! I heard no reports at all about the matches on Sunday.

Ajax Cap Town played invited teams Sporting Clube de Portugal, Crystal Palace FC, and Super Sport United.

The City of Cape Town has used soccer matches as a mistaken means  of beating Seasonality in winter, especially when its former Mayoral Committee Councillor for Tourism, Marketing, and Events Grant Pascoe was in charge, before defecting to the ANC.  Ironic is that the ANC is now criticizing the soccer strategy in marketing Cape Town, but never criticized Pascoe’s similar wasteful soccer expenditure.

A shock was seeing the Cape Times report that City of Cape Town Executive Director of Tourism, Events and Marketing Anton Groenewald has resigned due to the Football Flop, admitting that the event cost R28 million, and attracted only 22000 soccer fans in total over the two days, in a Stadium that can hold 64000 spectators per day! Groenewald admitted: ‘I failed dismally from a financial point, so seriously that it was enough for me to have to leave. We modeled the tournament using the example of when Manchester United player Ajax Cape Town at the Cape Town Stadium in July 2012‘. More than double the number of spectators attended the game then. The City had estimated that they would sell up to 35000 tickets.

Groenewald created the Tourism Directorate inside the City of Cape Town four years ago, seen by many to be in competition to the City-funded Cape Town Tourism. The City took over the role of marketing Cape Town, leaving Cape Town Tourism to only handle Visitor Services. Very little marketing has been visible by the City in the past four years, its total focus being on sponsoring the events of other players, and the occasional soccer event, seen as the panacea for Seasonality but not succeeding at all!

ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman said that Groenewald’s resignation reflected that he had to ‘take the fall‘ for his bosses’ ‘engineering, conniving, and machinations’! He said: ‘This is a massive abuse of taxpayer money by the DA under the direct oversight of the mayor and at least her mayoral committee member. They are politically accountable for the mess. How many houses could be built or facilities upgraded with this money?’

City of Cape Town ANC Councillor Tony Ehrenreich, known to continuously moan about something, described the event as a ‘spectacular disaster‘. He has called for the new Tourism, Events, and Marketing Councillor Garreth Bloor to resign for the waste of public funds, but the Councillor has countered that the event was approved by the City Council, including the ANC.

Councillor Bloor added that they are still analyzing the extent of the loss! Ironically he was quoted in the media statement issued by the City about the event prior to it taking place!: ‘The City of Cape Town is delighted to host the inaugural Cape Town Cup in our beautiful city. We look forward to welcoming the teams and their many fans. Our support for the tournament is part of the City’s strategy to position Cape Town as the events capital of Africa. Events play a pivotal role in generating visitor expenditure and growing our local economy. Soccer is a unifying sport and events like these bring citizens from all walks of life together. We call on Capetonians to come out in their numbers to support the event,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Councillor Garreth Bloor’.

The Tourism industry is already in the doldrums since the introduction of the Immigration Regulations by the Department of Home Affairs.  The R30 million spent on the Cape Town Cup could have been spent far more effectively on Tourism, from which the budget came, to attract more tourists to our beautiful city, which suffers severe Seasonality in winter. Of greater concern is who will take over from Groenewald in running the Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate now that Groenewald has left, no 2IC being known!  It is clear that the City’s strategy to position Cape Town as the ‘Events Capital of Africa’ is misguided!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage  Facebook:  click