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Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May at the Top Gear Festival in Joburg in March 2011. Picture: Ziphozonke Lushaba<\/p>\n
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The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has agreed to fork out 50 percent of the cost of hosting the Top Gear <\/em>Festival in Durban, mayor James Nxumalo said at yesterday\u2019s full council meeting during a robust debate over whether the city could afford to stage the event. <\/p>\n Top Gear<\/em> TV presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, as well as the popular character known as The Stig, are to appear at Durban\u2019s Moses Mabhida Stadium in June, when a temporary racetrack would be constructed to hold the festival. <\/p>\n Economic Development Department spokesman Bheko Madlala said a preliminary assessment indicated that there would be \u201cpositive economic benefits for the province through direct tourism arrivals, infrastructure spend as well as the enhancement of KZN\u2019s automotive sector\u201d. <\/p>\n Flawed <\/p>\n Madlala said a press briefing would be held soon at which the matter would be discussed. A report tabled before the council\u2019s executive committee last year suggested that R31.4 million was needed to host the festival for the next three years, with eThekwini ratepayers having to pay more than R15m and the balance being covered by the province. <\/p>\n The report proposed a three-year agreement in a joint initiative, with the host city providing infrastructure and the province providing the event fees and operational costs, while Top Gear<\/em>\u2019s licensor would manage the event. <\/p>\n DA caucus leader Tex Collins said while the party had no objection to the festival, there were elements in its approval which indicated that the process had been flawed, and the festival had no budget provision. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the first instance, the provincial government signed the contract with Top Gear<\/em> before any consultative process had been entertained at council level\u2026 What is of equal concern is that the tender (for infrastructure) for the festival has already been published, yet no approval from council was obtained in this regard,\u201d Collins said. <\/p>\n He said it was clear that the city had not shaken off the legacy left by former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe, and \u201ccontinues to steamroll issues which, at the outset, are procedurally flawed and contrary to regulations\u201d. <\/p>\n However, municipal legal services head Nokhana Moerane said the council had resolved last year that the executive committee had the authority to finalise any matter that may arise, including the Top Gear <\/em>matter. <\/p>\n \u201cSo all seems to be in line,\u201d she said in response to Collins\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n Municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole said he had been informed that a contract had been signed by Sutcliffe and the city was therefore committed to hosting the event. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are now bound by that contract\u2026 We need to expedite the process, hence the tender was advertised,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Minority Front councillor Patrick Pillay said the city should consider investing in a permanent race track. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May at the Top Gear Festival in Joburg in March 2011. Picture: Ziphozonke Lushaba The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has agreed to fork out 50 percent of the cost of hosting the Top Gear Festival in Durban, mayor James Nxumalo said at yesterday\u2019s full council meeting during a robust […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-7547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}