The following speech by Wesley Neumann, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor, was delivered during today’s City of Cape Town Full Council Meeting: Item C 15/08/25 authorisation to commence with a public participation process in terms of the municipal asset transfer regulations (matr) for the proposed sale of the city’s shareholding in the Cape Town International Convention Centre Soc Ltd (CTICC):
Speaker
The CT-ICC is not an ordinary company.
The CT-ICC stands as a public jewel, created through the sacrifices and contributions of ordinary ratepayers. It is theirs, it belongs to the PEOPLE of Cape Town! It is a strategic public asset, built and sustained with billions in public money from the City and Province. Today, we are being asked to support a process to commence public participation on the sale of the City’s shares in the CT-ICC.
Before we even open this matter to the public, Council itself must demand answers to fundamental questions that go to the heart of accountability, transparency, and the safeguarding of public assets. To speak of selling it without full disclosure is a betrayal of our duty as custodians of the people’s assets.
We therefore ask the following questions, which remain unanswered, which is not present in this document you seek us to approve:
1. Assets and Liabilities: What are the total assets and liabilities of the CTICC? Council cannot consider disposal without knowing the full balance sheet.
Speaker: This should be before us today – To make an informed decision.
2. Financial Performance: Where are the last five years of audited financial statements? These will show whether CTICC is a profitable, sustainable venture, or one being undervalued under the guise of disposal.
Speaker: This should be before us today to make an informed decision.
Don’t tell me to go and look at the audited reports online, it should be before today, and 2024’s audit report will only be available next January.
3. Assets Included: Do the buildings, land, improvements, furniture, fixtures, operating systems, and equipment form part of the company’s assets, or are we only selling shares without the underlying infrastructure?
4. Original Investment: What was the original capital investment by the City in land, buildings, parking, and civil works? Has this sunk cost been properly accounted for in the valuation?
5. Lease Arrangements: What is the current lease arrangement between the City and CTICC? Is it at below-market value, and will future arrangements tie the City into long-term concessions that benefit private buyers at the expense of ratepayers?
6. Provincial Government Share: What happens to the Provincial Government’s shareholding? Will they sell too, or will the City’s withdrawal leave disproportionate influence in provincial hands?
7. PF-MA Compliance: If the City sells, does the CTICC remain a public entity under the Public Finance Management Act? If not, what oversight mechanisms will remain in place?
8. Parking and External Revenue: Does CTICC currently collect revenue from structured and surface parking, loading bays, and external areas? If so, are these revenue streams part of the asset being valued?
9. Concessionaire Contracts: What happens to existing concessionaires, service providers, and contractors under private ownership?
10. Valuation: How was the figure of R885 million reached? Why cost less impairments, and not market value or discounted cash flow, given the global brand and revenue potential of the CTICC?
11. Rates and Taxes: Is the CTICC currently exempt from municipal rates, and if so, will private buyers continue to enjoy that exemption?
Speaker, these are not minor details. It should be before us today, but we are asked to make a decision. They are fundamental questions that strike at the legitimacy of the entire process. To proceed to public participation without clarity is to ask the public to comment in the dark, without facts, without figures, and without honesty.
Until Council is furnished with clear, comprehensive answers to each of these questions backed by audited reports and independent valuations, we cannot, and must not, authorise this process. Stripping away this public asset without answers is selling out the people of Cape Town for short-term gain.
As the GOOD Party, we therefore oppose this proposal.
Thank you.
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