Betway Premiership club Chippa United stands accused of being in an unholy and unscrupulous relationship with the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM). Chippa boss Siviwe Mpengesi and his related group of companies are alleged to have grabbed the city’s sports facilities and taken the budget for sport and community development services.
Two weeks ago, the club Chippa posted on its social media saying that the BCM had bought 11 000 tickets (that would have cost in the region of R450 000) for the Chippa v ersus Marumo Gallants league match played at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London.
The Chilli Boys posted the following on their FaceBook account: “Buffalo City, football is back, and the Buffalo City Municipality has purchased 11 350 tickets, making entry to tomorrow’s match free between Chippa United and Marumo Gallants at Buffalo City Stadium; absolutely FREE!
“Ticket collection details: Collect your ticket at Buffalo City Stadium offices tomorrow: (Saturday January 18).”
This left the football structures in the region fuming and demanding answers.
South African Football Association (Safa) Eastern Cape and sports bodies in the Buffalo City are up in arms and want answers as to how could BCM use municipality money for this wasteful expenditure.
An insider within Safa Buffalo City said they were still waiting for a formal and written information on whether the BCM really purchased those tickets. BCM has not yet replied to the Safa enquiry.
Says Safa in its letter: “Should Buffalo City Metropolitan Municiaplity confirm that they purchased the 11 350 tickets from Chippa United FC, we demand that: The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality Council, executive mayor, and city manager investigate and discipline all officials and employees who are involved in this corrupt transaction and abuse of public funds.
“And the city manager must report Chippa United FC to the PSL for their unprofessional and reckless behavior.”
The statement further reads that the association is dismayed about the relationship between Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality and Chippa United FC and their related group of companies that is said to take or use all the allocated budget of the city’s directorate of sport, recreation and community development services.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya commented: “We are unable to comment in detail on the exact contents of the correspondence by Safa.
“It will be ideal for us to have a more interactive engagement with Safa in order to get a better understanding and the rationale behind the letter and thereafter, its contents and issues raised be ventilated properly around the table amicably and not play out as a public spat in the media.
“The doors of the metro are always open to engage with all sporting organisations in our region and this should be the case in this matter as well. In as far as purchasing tickets [is concerned], we can assure the public though, that there were no financial transactions made by the municipality to specifically purchase tickets for the Chippa United vs Gallants match.”
Mpengesi had not responded at the time of going to print.
