Tempers flared up during the Makana council’s social services committee meeting as councillors passionately debated a report about the Makana/ASTV Stockelsdorf football exchange programme.
Tempers flared up during the Makana council’s social services committee meeting as councillors passionately debated a report about the Makana/ASTV Stockelsdorf football exchange programme.
Firing the first salvo of the day was social services committee chairperson Thuleka Ngeleza who said at a meeting last week that she had been hesitant to include the report in the agenda since it dealt with the Makana tour of the Stockelsdorf football club which happened in October last year.
Makana Sports and recreation officer Jeff Budaza responded that this was because he did not know who to send it to as the municipality’s senior management had "distanced" themselves from the exchange programme.
During their week-long stay in Grahamstown, the Stockelsdorf Football Club from Germany played soccer against local youth, rendered a coaching clinic and toured game reserves and rural schools. All these activities were filmed for a documentary by the German/Turkish TV channel ASTV which was shown on four German television channels.
Budaza digressed by saying, "I know what’s happening, socially and politically. I was born in Grahamstown. I know how I’m seen in the community." He added that he had told Parks and Recreation assistant director Kevin Bates, his superior, that he did not know what to do with the report as the municipality had "disowned" the project.
He cited that corporate services director Thabiso Klaas, who was the acting municipal manager at the time, had referred to the project as as "Budaza’s project".
He alleged that none of the municipality’s senior managers, including Klaas, did not want to authorise the payment of Budaza’s airfare back from Cape Town, which would have been a stopover from Germany. "The Germans pulled out because of what happened in Cape Town. I was left to die alone, but unfortunately I survived," he said.
Councillor Mxolisi Ntshiba said the matter was serious as Budaza’s report showed that the Germans had indeed pulled out of the project. "I so wish that we take cognisance of the frustrations of our sports officer, this was his project. May the
director [Mandisi Planga] and sports officer guide us as to how can we resuscitate the project," he said.Planga responded by saying that it was too late for the municipality to financially prepare to send school boys with a talent for soccer to Stockelsdorf by August.
According to the programme’s itinerary, the boys from Makana were due to visit Germany next month where they were expected to stay for two weeks playing soccer and visiting major tourist attractions such as the Berlin Wall.
Their list of activities included a tour to Hamburg, rowing, a school visit and a sightseeing tour the town’s World Cup stadium.
ASTV was going to donate R350 000 for the tour to cover accomodation, subsistence and travel expenses. Budaza was tasked to draw up a business plan for the tour and to solicit sponsorship.
While the council resolved to investigate ways of salvaging the programme, Budaza asked for his name to be excluded from any committee charged with that task. He expressed his disappointment with the committe’s failure to view his situation as neutral and impartial.
Councillor Nomhle Gaga suggested that Budaza should follow a proper grievance procedure as she could see that there are "problems between him and the municipality’s senior management".
Responding to a question about sports codes from Councillor Nonzameko Tyantsula, Budaza said it was not his job to monitor sports codes as local associations were in charge of the monitoring.
This response prompted the committee’s chairperson Thuleka Ngeleza to ask Planga to submit an item about the sports and recreation officer’s job description for consideration at the committee’s next meeting in August.
Gaga suggested that Planga, Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart and human resources manager to sit down together and "iron out the labour issues" which Budaza raised in his report about the project.
