Premier’s office slams ANC contract claim

The Western Cape government has described as preposterous claims by the ANC that it spent 0.5 percent of its overall budget on a communications contract. At a news conference on Tuesday, ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said taking into account the scope of work in the service-level agreement between the provincial government and TBWA Hunt Lascaris, the Western Cape communications tender appeared to be worth far more than R70 million. The tender, officially worth between R50m and R70m and awarded to TBWA Hunt Lascaris, is a two-year contract to develop a brand and communications strategy for the provincial government.

Mjongile said TBWA was hired to do a job that the provincial communications directorate was already being paid to do. “They are basically duplicating; doing the communications work for all departments,” said Mjongile. “There is no need to have a communications unit in each department because this agency, according to the service-level agreement, does everything.” ANC provincial treasurer Fezile Calana said the provincial government spent 0.5 percent of its budget on communications. “This means that of the provincial government’s R33 billion budget, about R165m was being spent on communications and TBWA a year,” said Calana.

“This means that madam Zille lied when she said only R50m was being spent on the contract. We want the public protector to investigate this.” The ANC delivered a copy of the service-level agreement to the public protector on Tuesday, to be included in her investigation. But the Department of the Premier hit back, saying the ANC’s claims were “preposterous”. “This latest attempt to wring more column inches from the communications tender beggars belief,” said director-general Brent Gerber. “The service-level agreement makes absolutely no provision for 0.5 percent of the Western Cape budget to be spent on TBWA Hunt Lascaris. That is preposterous.”

Gerber also said that all intellectual property was vested with the Western Cape government. “As for handing the service-level agreement over to the public protector, the Western Cape has already made (it) available to the public protector in our efforts to assist them with their investigation.” According to the service-level agreement, TBWA was required to develop a brand and brand delivery strategy, corporate identity and communications strategy for the Western Cape. The scope of work includes developing, producing and implementing all television, print, radio and outdoor communication.

The ANC first laid a formal complaint in August, requesting a full investigation of the matter. A criminal complaint was also filed against Premier Helen Zille’s chief adviser, Ryan Coetzee, provincial government communications head Nick Clelland-Stokes, former education department head Paul Boughey and Zille’s former speech-writer, Gavin Davis, for their involvement in the bidding process. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s office confirmed that the ANC delivered the document late on Tuesday.