By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) NEC member Mzwandile Masina has challenged Cape Town mayor Gordon Hill-Lewis to provide the names of ANC office bearers who called him for the stadium bookings.
The ANC will be hosting it’s 113th birthday at the Mandela Park Stadium, which accommodates only 22,000 people, making it one of the smallest celebrations in over a decade.
Hill-Lewis claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that the ANC failed to secure larger venues, blaming incompetence rather than concern for residents.
He said that attempts to book Cape Town Stadium and Athlone Stadium were too late as both were already reserved for other events. He dismissed claims that the City sabotaged the ANC’s bookings.
For the record, the ANC did not book the Khayelitsha stadium “out of concern” for residents. They’re lying. They booked it because they were too incompetent to book any other venue in time. They only tried to book Cape Town Stadium in mid-November 2024! It was already booked for a Stormers game. Then they tried Athlone Stadium. It was also booked, for the Klopse Carnival,” said the mayor.
He dismissed claims that the City sabotaged the ANC’s bookings.
The January 8 rally, an annual ANC event since 1972, commemorates the party’s founding in 1912.
Masina said the ANC did not officially task anyone with calling him for stadium bookings.
“I can confirm that it was ANC’s decision to go back to the people and take these events where the people are. I don’t understand what the mayor is trying to do here because he’s not responsible for the booking of halls,” Masina said.
“Ask the mayor to give you the name of the person who called him, he will not be able to do it because there is no such person.
“We have no record of any person who was officially sent by the ANC to book the stadium either in Cape Town or Athlone, so the mayor can assist us.”
Masina accused Hill-Lewis of trying to make the ANC look incompetent when the party knows the processes of booking Cape Town stadiums as it has done before.
“I am shocked as a former executive mayor that a mayor is now responsible for the booking of halls and stadiums.
“It’s quite ridiculous on his part, and I’m not sure which cheap political pint is trying to score here, because he’s not responsible for the ANC decision-making in terms of where we go and why we go there,” said Masina.
We’ve booked the Athlone stadium before, and we know exactly how the City of Cape Town and province proceeds with issues of bookings, so I’m quite shocked that he chose to go on social media to try and put ANC in a very bad light.”
Masina criticised the Hill-Lewis for ‘catching feelings’ over the ANC’s activities in the Western Cape, a Democratic Alliance (DA) stronghold since 2009.