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Forum up in arms over festival tender

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“We call upon the mayor to act on our demand for a locally-based company to be appointed.”

THE FRANCES Baard Business Forum has objected to the appointment of a Johannesburg-based company as the successful bidder for the Diamonds and Dorings music festival, which will take place over the Easter weekend.

Frances Baard Business Forum secretary Noor Mahomed, in a statement, yesterday called on the Sol Plaatje Municipality to reverse the decision in order to give preference to local business.

“We call upon the mayor to act on our demand for a locally-based company to be appointed. The local economic development manager at Sol Plaatje Municipality must stop undermining local small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs),” said Mahomed.

He stated that 100 percent local companies, including Mycronym, Wall of Arts and Wydex, were overlooked when the tender was awarded to a Johannesburg-based company, Investong.

“The principle of local inclusion and empowerment is consistently undermined. In 2019 the Diamonds and Dorings festival was cancelled as a result of the appointment of Investong over local SMMEs. We cannot ignore the possibility that our local municipality is up for sale.”

Investong has previously indicated that it is locally-based.

Sol Plaatje Municipality spokesperson Sello Matsie said that all tender procedures were followed and supply chain management processes were applied when the tender was awarded last week.

“The successful bidder had to comply with a list of criteria including financial backing, tax compliance and so on.”

He acknowledged that unsuccessful competitors had raised their objection over the awarding of the tender.

Matsie indicated that due to financial constraints, the municipality would not be providing any funding towards the event.

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