The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality wants to sever ties with a company that is charging inflated prices to deliver newspapers for senior managers and mayoral committee councillors.
The company, Mazofin, was awarded a tender to supply 23 copies of The Herald every day and 23 copies of the Weekend Post every Saturday.
The municipality has been forking out R22678 every month for the newspapers.
Had it subscribed for the newspapers directly from Times Media Group, it would cost about R3105 monthly.
Mazofin owner Kolekile Jafta declined to comment yesterday.
Details of the contract to "circulate" newspapers emerged this week after the metro's new political head of corporate services, councillor Dean Biddulph, asked questions about how much the municipality was paying for newspaper subscriptions.
Mazofin was awarded the tender in April.
The newspapers are for all mayoral committee members and executive directors as well as the offices of the speaker, chief whip and city manager.
Biddulph wants the contract with Mazofin to be scrutinised by the legal services department to see if the metro can get out of it.
"It's just scandalous. They're charging [close to] 1000% more than what the newspapers cost. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are still more contracts such as this that we are still going to uncover. We are in the process of terminating contracts to identify where there are savings," Biddulph said.
The metro's mayoral committee member in charge of budget and treasury, councillor Retief Odendaal, said the contract should never have been awarded.
"I've already said they (officials) must cancel the contract. Value-for-money contracts must be drawn up and the contract must be cancelled. This is gross, gross abuse. I can't sit with the paper on my desk that costs the ratepayer that much money. It's totally unacceptable. If we think it's necessary to have the 23 newspapers, why can't we have an arrangement with The Herald," Odendaal asked.
Subscription supervisor of The Herald and Weekend Post, Kenneth McWire, said Mazofin was not on its list of subscribers.
He said there was no record of bulk subscriptions to supply 23 newspapers to any resident in the city.
"We have discovered that a man purchases 23 copies of The Herald at the Walmer Boulevard intersection every morning at R6.20 a paper," McWire said.
He said up until the end of last year, Times Media used to deliver 24 newspaper subscriptions to the municipality's offices every day.
McWire said there were four different groups of people who inquired about the costs of bulk subscriptions last year.
"None of them signed up for subscriptions on those days. They wanted to know if there were discounts for bulk subscriptions or if all the copies are delivered to one address.
"When I asked what it was all about, they said it was an empowerment project by government," McWire said.
Municipality overpays for newspaper subscription
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality wants to sever ties with a company that is charging inflated prices to deliver newspapers for senior managers and mayoral committee councillors.
The company, Mazofin, was awarded a tender to supply 23 copies of The Herald every day and 23 copies of the Weekend Post every Saturday.
The municipality has been forking out R22678 every month for the newspapers.
Had it subscribed for the newspapers directly from Times Media Group, it would cost about R3105 monthly.
Mazofin owner Kolekile Jafta declined to comment yesterday.
Details of the contract to "circulate" newspapers emerged this week after the metro's new political head of corporate services, councillor Dean Biddulph, asked questions about how much the municipality was paying for newspaper subscriptions.
Mazofin was awarded the tender in April.
The newspapers are for all mayoral committee members and executive directors as well as the offices of the speaker, chief whip and city manager.
Biddulph wants the contract with Mazofin to be scrutinised by the legal services department to see if the metro can get out of it.
"It's just scandalous. They're charging [close to] 1000% more than what the newspapers cost. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are still more contracts such as this that we are still going to uncover. We are in the process of terminating contracts to identify where there are savings," Biddulph said.
The metro's mayoral committee member in charge of budget and treasury, councillor Retief Odendaal, said the contract should never have been awarded.
"I've already said they (officials) must cancel the contract. Value-for-money contracts must be drawn up and the contract must be cancelled. This is gross, gross abuse. I can't sit with the paper on my desk that costs the ratepayer that much money. It's totally unacceptable. If we think it's necessary to have the 23 newspapers, why can't we have an arrangement with The Herald," Odendaal asked.
Subscription supervisor of The Herald and Weekend Post, Kenneth McWire, said Mazofin was not on its list of subscribers.
He said there was no record of bulk subscriptions to supply 23 newspapers to any resident in the city.
"We have discovered that a man purchases 23 copies of The Herald at the Walmer Boulevard intersection every morning at R6.20 a paper," McWire said.
He said up until the end of last year, Times Media used to deliver 24 newspaper subscriptions to the municipality's offices every day.
McWire said there were four different groups of people who inquired about the costs of bulk subscriptions last year.
"None of them signed up for subscriptions on those days. They wanted to know if there were discounts for bulk subscriptions or if all the copies are delivered to one address.
"When I asked what it was all about, they said it was an empowerment project by government," McWire said.
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