Date:
Monday, June 26, 2006
Headline:
Premier‘s trip to World Cup ‘a waste of money‘
Newspaper:
Eastern Province Herald
Article:
Premier‘s trip to World Cup ‘a waste of money‘
By Sipho Masondo
THE Public Service Accountability Monitor has criticised as "wasteful expenditure" the trip
which a 14-member Eastern Cape delegation will undertake to Germany today.
Premier Nosimo Balindlela and a 13-member entourage will fly to Lower Saxony today to learn
more about preparation for the 2010 Cup, to be held in South Africa. The trip will also focus on
economic development initiatives and be part of the Cologne Arts and Culture Summer Festival,
to which the premier had been invited.
Balindlela‘s spokesman, Masiza Mazizi, said the delegation included the premier‘s husband,
Miniyakhe Balindlela, and selected MEC‘s and municipal mayors, including Nelson Mandela Bay
Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi.
PSAM director Colm Allan said: "While the PSAM recognises that it may be important for national
sports department officials and those directly involved in the technical planning and management
of facilities for the 2010 World Cup to attend, there is absolutely no justification for Eastern Cape
provincial and local government politicians to do so."
However, Mazizi said the mayors and technical staff of all the cities which would host the World
Cup in 2010 were required by Fifa to be in Germany.
He said the mayors of King Sabata Dalindyebo and Buffalo City also had to be there as their
municipalities would be used as practice venues.
As for the premier‘s husband, Mazizi said he had the right to travel with the premier.
"The ministerial handbook does allow premiers to take their spouses and family on overseas
trips, provided it can be justified." Mazizi declined to reveal the amount that would be paid for the
trip.