DA slams exco’s COP21 Paris trip
The almost R500 000 cost of sending eThekwini city officials to the COP21 in Paris has come under fire.
|||Durban - The almost R500 000 cost of sending a number of eThekwini councillors and city officials to the climate change Conference Of Parties 21 (COP21) in Paris, France next month, came under fire at an executive committee (exco) meeting on Tuesday.
The city agreed to recommendations put forward in a report seeking approval for five councillors and two city officials to make the trip next month, but DA caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango and DA councillor Heinz de Boer took issue with the high costs involved.
De Boer appreciated the importance of international travel, he said, as it was important to be exposed to other environments to try to bring best practice back to the city.
“But, in the current economic climate one has to start adopting a more frugal approach,” he said.
According to the report, the mayor’s trip had already been approved. What was being sought was the approval of the trips of those who would join him.
The mayor’s flights and accommodation would cost R90 000, it said, and the other delegates’ trips a total of R56 500 each.
De Boer believed it was not necessary to send five councillors to support the mayor. He said this was “maybe a little bit too much expenditure,” and that other services and issues required funding more urgently.
He also said officials who went on overseas trips of this nature often did not file reports upon returning.
“It is concerning, it starts raising questions as to what is happening on these trips,” he said.
Deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala, however, was adamant that the costs of sending the delegation were justified.
She said there would be departing sessions and delegates would have to spread themselves.
“There is no way you can send just one or two,” she said.
COP21 will take place from December 1 to December 10. According to the official website, the conference seeks to review the implementation of the Rio Convention, which “sets out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
An agreement is expected to be reached at this year’s conference which “legally binds all nations to addressing climate change.”
In 2011, foreign delegates from around the world descended on Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, when the city played host to COP17.
Daily News
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