02 June 2010

The removal and redesigning of the King Shaka statue, commissioned by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government apparently without consultation with stakeholders, has incurred wasteful expenditure to the province, the IFP claims.

"The King Shaka statue, which has been criticised by the Zulu Royal Family, was commissioned without consultation with the Royal Household. The statue is now to be redesigned and this will inevitably incur wasteful expenditure to the provincial fiscus," said IFP KZN public accounts spokesperson Dr Lionel Mtshali MPL.

The IFP was reacting to the executive statement by KZN MEC for Economic Development Michael Mabuyakhulu who announced today that the controversial statue will soon be removed from its current location and redesigned.     

The IFP has previously criticised the lack of the provincial government’s consultation with the airlines which operated from the old Durban International ahead of the construction of the new King Shaka International Airport at La Mercy.

"The bungled consultation process with the relevant stakeholders was one of the factors that contributed to the fact that the original budget for the new airport was exceeded to reach R7-billion," said Dr Mtshali.

The IFP contends that consultation has never been a strong point of the ANC KZN provincial government. "While lip service is being paid to the importance of consulting all relevant stakeholders ahead of all government-sponsored projects, in reality little substance is attached to the formal procedures," said Dr Mtshali.

The IFP hopes that this episode will serve as a lesson on the importance of consulting all relevant stakeholders in all future publicly-funded projects. "We should either abandon consultation altogether or conduct it with the seriousness it deserves," said Dr Mtshali.

Contact: Dr Lionel Mtshali, 078 302 0929