From the news desk

City lays charges against minstrel group for “illegal” Belhar event

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By: Zaahidah Meyer

Tensions within the Cape minstrel fraternity have reached a head again, after the City of Cape Town laid criminal charges against the Cape Town Minstrels Carnival Association (CTMCA) on Wednesday. The CTMCA, which is home to 13 minstrel troupes, allegedly occupied the Belhar Sports Field illegally over the weekend, after it withdrew from a duly authorised joint event with the Cape District Minstrels Board at Florida Park in Ravensmead.

Speaking to VOC Breakfast Beat on Thursday, the City’s Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the CTMCA’s head Richard Stemmet refused to share costs for additional portable toilets that were required for the Florida Park venue and summarily decided to move his troops to Belhar for their own event.

He said the CTMCA “was not acting in good faith” and has exhausted the patience of the City.

Officials at the sports field called to inform them of the group that arrived and pushed past security to enter the grounds.

“We needed to despatch law enforcement but once there is a large number of women and children involved, it’s not really feasible to take action or remove people from the site. So the decision was made to rather focus on prosecuting the responsible individuals afterward because by that time you’re not just trespassing on a facility which you haven’t booked but you’re also in violation of the City’s events by-law and more problematically the national SASREA (Safety at Sport and Recreational Events Act) legislation,” said Smith.

In December 2018, the City filed a charge of fraud against the CTMCA at Cape Town Central police station after it emerged that they had composed a fraudulent letter seeking funding, using an old City letterhead. Smith said the association also owes the City at least R700 000 relating to cost orders from the numerous court challenges that they’ve launched, and lost, in recent years.

He added that the City works well with all other minstrel fraternities but is constantly at loggerheads with the CTMCA.

“Where we come unstuck is with the persistently dishonest management of the CTMCA who break every rule. The CTMCA is persistently either disingenuous or negotiating in bad faith. We are at a point with them where we don’t actually see a way forward and I don’t understand how any of their troupes will get help at the end of this year,” Smith said.

But CTMCA spokesperson Sedick Soeker said the fraternity tried negotiating with the City in good faith since last year.

“We made an application with the City way back in February. Whenever we looked for a venue, they (City) kept on saying there is no venue graded with the venue safety and grading certificate. The City has always been trying to stop us, saying we’re not compliant,” said Soeker.

Contesting this, Smith said responses are always received promptly.

“We cannot do business with the CTMCA as an entity because of the fact that they have board members with POCA (Prevention of Organised Crime Act) convictions as they were convicted for being involved with firearms and drugs,” Smith explained.

Smith further added that some laws cannot be set aside by the City.

“We cannot set aside the POCA or the fact that they have now run up huge debts and the fact remains that they are trying to use venues that are not SASREA compliant. We also can’t violate the legislation by giving access to a venue which is not permissible,” said Smith.

Soeker later firmly opposed the statements made by Smith, saying the City has never been fair to the CTMCA.

“It was said that the City is not allowed to give any organization a venue if they owed the City money. When the billing was done last year, there was another organization that owed the City an amount of money and yet the City deemed it fit to give the venue to them,” Soeker stated.

Soeker also responded to the accusations of the element of criminality within the CTMCA, saying that this will “not be taken lightly.”

“We will not allow anyone to discredit this board because it has a rich history. The late ex-president Nelson Mandela was an honourable patron of this board,” said Soeker.

With regards to the “non-payment” by the CTMCA, Soeker said he had proof that payment of R36 000 was made.

“When the Disaster Management team got there and saw it was us (CTMCA), the fees suddenly went up.”

Soeker further added that this matter will be taken further as the fraternity is being denied practicing their arts and culture.

“Our Constitutional rights have been infringed upon by the City of Cape Town,” said Soeker.

Soeker said all the issues with the CTMCA came back after they attended an ANC (African National Congress) event.

Smith hit back at this saying that as much as they (CTMCA) would like the issue to be political, there is no political hostility from the City.

The CTMCA has vowed to go to the highest courts to protect their right to stage the minstrel carnivals.

“We are going to reclaim our heritage. I will call upon the national ministry and go to the highest authorities to protect our arts and culture.”

VOC


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