Mayor corrects malicious Mayoral Committee announcement rumours 

11 December 2021

There have been reports circulating in the media regarding the exorbitant costs associated with the mayoral committee announcement meeting that was postponed.

These reports are a deliberate attempt to bring the Office of the Mayor into disrepute.

The truth is that I stressed to the organizers of the meeting that costs must be kept at a minimum.

I gave explicit instructions for the arrangements to be tentative and not final.

This decision was due to the coalition negotiations being prolonged.

I also said at most there should be a 2-hour event with a small breakfast for a maximum of R200 per person using in-house catering and no lunch. It was also agreed that we will make use of a Council venue to eliminate venue hire costs.

My office was then informed that a media advisory had been sent out for an event on Friday morning. We immediately contacted the organisers to halt the process and we were informed that there would be costs. We enquired what these costs would be.

For reasons that are clearly politically motivated, someone has sought to spread a lie that there is an extravagant event that has been cancelled and has incurred a highly inflated cost.

The so-called costs are incorrect and it is obvious that an erroneous invoice has been circulated to the public. These costs are contested and there will be an appropriate conversation with the supplier in this regard. For example, there should be no costs for venue hire, chairs and such as the event was supposed to be held at a Council venue.

Further to this, certain internal documents have been circulated to the public, this plus the organisational failure will be investigated by the City Manager.

Moreover, I will ensure that those responsible for any botch-up in the arrangements are held accountable.

The fact is, the true cost will be much lower and we will assess how best to cover any shortfall, which would be very small.

Issued by Mpho Phalatse, Executive Mayor for the City of Johannesburg, 11 December 2021