President Cyril Ramaphosa's presidential izimbizo have come at a huge cost to the taxpayer — R44m for four events in just eight months.
The events have been dubbed “talk shops” by the president's detractors.
The costs were disclosed to parliament this week by co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, in a written reply to questions from DA MP Frederik Badenhorst.
The government has long been hosting the izimbizo at which the president and his ministers gather to listen to the public’s views about service delivery and other issues, but this is the first time the costs have been publicly disclosed.
Hlabisa told parliament that between October 2023 and May this year, which was the height of the election campaign season ahead of the watershed May 29 polls, the government spent R44,940,576 for the president to listen to service delivery complaints at the one-day gatherings.
The value accrues from the fact that communities have an opportunity to engage directly with their elected representatives and hold them accountable on an unmediated platform
— Cogta minister Velenkosini Hlabisa
According to Hlabisa’s reply, the provincial government of Mpumalanga was the biggest spender on the one-day imbizo, splurging R14.9m at the town of Emalahleni on March 7 this year.
Two months later, the Northern Cape joined the party, spending R8.6m for the president to spend the day under a marquee with residents of Kuruman and surrounding areas on May 11 this year, with Hlabisa’s department chipping in R4.3m.
On December 7 last year, the Free State government doled out R11.1m on the imbizo held at Welkom, with the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department adding just over R1m to the tab.
The provincial government of North West and Cogta equally shared the R4.8m cost of hosting the imbizo in Potchefstroom on October 23 last year.
Hlabisa told the Sunday Times on Friday that the bulk of the money was spent on procuring marquees and other infrastructure such as sound systems and mobile toilets.
He said the expenditure included transportation of members of the public to and from the izimbizo venues and providing them with food and drink.
At these events, members of the public are ordinarily be served food parcels containing sandwiches, fruit, juice and bottled water.
“The money was spent on logistical arrangements like infrastructure and transport as well as meals for the public considering that the programme takes the whole day. The items were procured in accordance with the mutually agreed procurement plan with all intergovernmental stakeholders. These form part of a joint imbizo procurement workstream among other workstreams that form part of the overall intergovernmental and joint co-ordination of the planning and implementation for each imbizo,” said Hlabisa.
The Cogta minister from the IFP who recently joined the GNU cabinet said the expenditure was justifiable. The marquees were part of the security plan of the Presidency and the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS), which is responsible for government security.
“The value accrues from the fact that communities have an opportunity to engage directly with their elected representatives and hold them accountable on an unmediated platform.
“It presents a unique opportunity for the public to contribute to the government programme of planning for the benefit of the people who are recipients of services.
“The procuring of infrastructure such as marquees form part of the integrated safety and security plan and detail determined by the Presidency and NATJOINTS,” said Hlabisa.
But Badenhorst remained unmoved, saying the meetings were nothing but talk shops and not worthy of the R44.9m spent over eight months.
The DA MP said the money could have been better used fixing roads and potholes, and providing water and sanitation in the provinces. ,
“I'm not convinced the money spent is worth it. From what I gather, they were talk shops and nothing came out of them. What benefit did the people get?” said Badenhorst.
Hlabisa rejected the criticism.
“Each imbizo has an action plan that is implementable emanating from the issues raised by the public.
I'm not convinced the money spent is worth it. From what I gather, they were talk shops and nothing came out of them. What benefit did the people get
— DA MP Frederik Badenhorst
“The izimbizo harness the collective energies of South Africans towards a common programme of delivery. They are platforms of social compacting between the government and key stakeholders including business, traditional leaders and civil society organs.
“The premiers' offices monitor the responses and implementation of commitments made during each imbizo and develop regular reports that are submitted to the DPME and Cogta for tracking and monitoring. To say these are 'talk shops' is far from the truth.”
Top government officials familiar with the arrangements of the izimbizo said strictly managing the related budgets was required as some of their colleagues tended to inflate prices in cahoots with service providers.
“They once costed one at R9m which we reduced to about R2.6m, including catering and transport, by rejecting fancy marquees,” said one official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hlabisa said the izimbizo had nothing to do with the recent elections as they had been taking place since 2022.
“The presidential izimbizo are an ongoing programme of government which does not link to any political programme,” he said.
He added that the meetings would continue to be convened under the GNU.
“We continue to be prudent in our spending of public funds. We are a democratic government that is anchored in our communities. To this effect, the izimbizo will continue as one of the public participation processes aimed at building better communities through unblocking any blockages to service delivery. The izimbizo give our people a voice to speak out, directly to government. This helps government to know where pressures exist and what type of interventions are required to better the lives of our communities.”
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the izimbizo were “an invaluable forum” for engagement between the government and citizens.
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