“I just could not help.”
This is what Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said about the ANC’s failed 11th-hour attempt to secure the Cape Town Stadium in Green Point to host its January 8 rally.
Hill-Lewis revealed this week that ANC leaders only started asking about booking either this stadium, with a capacity of more than 50,000, or the 34,000-seat Athlone Stadium in mid-November last year.
He told the Sunday Times that he helps ANC leaders whenever he can, but this time it was impossible.
The ANC ended up holding its birthday rally at the Mandela Park Stadium in Khayelitsha, which has seats for about 2,000 people with space for another 20,000 on its pitches.
According to ANC insiders, the party’s organising team were “nonchalant”, mistakenly believing the party was so important that booking the venue they wanted would be a mere formality.
They only tried to book Cape Town Stadium in mid-November 2024! It was already booked for a Stormers game
— Geordin Hill-Lewis, Cape Town mayor
When this turned out not to be the case, some leaders within the ANC accused the DA-run Western Cape administration of sabotaging the January 8 event.
After debating whether it should move its celebration to another province, the ANC’s top brass opted to use the Mandela Park Stadium.
They sought to spin the decision as a demonstration of how the party wanted a venue that was in the heart of its support base.
The ANC has in the past used the anniversary as evidence of its mass appeal, usually staging celebrations in a huge stadium that can accommodate many tens of thousands. Last year the venue was Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga, with a capacity of 43,000.
But the ANC’s attempt to put a brave face on its failure to secure a big stadium in Cape Town this year has cut little ice.
Hill-Lewis accused the ANC of lying about its motives in holding the event in Khayelitsha. He said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the party booked Mandela Park because it was “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.
“Several ANC office-bearers called me, asking for help in late November and even early December. They said we were trying to sabotage them by refusing the stadium. In November! LOL! The last conversation I had was December 5, and by then they still hadn’t made a booking. So please don’t believe their nonsense.”
Even after the ANC booked the Khayelitsha stadium, it bungled its planning by failing to apply for the necessary permits in time, party sources said. They said this resulted in municipal staff ordering the ANC’s service providers to halt the erection of marquees.
One ANC staffer said this meant the preparations stretched late into Friday evening.
In the end, the stadium was not filled to capacity yesterday.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.