The Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in Bloemfontein is ready to welcome close to 20 000 people to the City of Roses for the ANC elective conference next month. Apart from the six thousand ANC delegates, it’s expected that business people, as well as local and international guests will be amongst those also attending the conference. Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State and is also the country’s Judicial Capital. The city became known as the City of Roses because of the abundance of these colourful flowers during spring and Summer. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning the place of cheetahs. The Mangaung Metro, which is the only one in the Free State, includes Thaba Nchu, Botshabelo and Bloemfontein, and has a population of just over 790 000 residents. The majority are Sesotho speaking with Afrikaans and English being the other main languages. In January this year, the metro successfully hosted one of the biggest events in the country, namely the ANC’s centenary celebrations. This event attracted tens of thousands of ANC members and supporters, as well as African heads of state and diplomats from across the world.
While the metro prepares to welcome thousands of visitors, it’s still faced with a shortage of accommodation
Mangaung metro spokesperson Qondile Khedama says this tested the city’s capability of hosting huge events. “We view ourselves as a city that is public-service oriented, so all these activities that are currently taking place have actually re-positioned the Mangaung as one of the brands that can be reckoned with throughout the world. The intention is to make sure that in the process, those investors that want to come and invest in the city, are actually enticed. Remember, we have released 7 land parcels where we also want people to come and invest,” says Khedama. In preparing for the conference, the metro has to ensure that essential services such as water and electricity will be available throughout. This follows concerns around the serious water leaks in Bloemfontein because of problems such as pipe bursts and not enough capacity in the reservoirs. The Metro loses millions of litres of water annually due to a lack of infrastructure maintenance. Khedama says these challenges are being addressed. “During the centenary we had cases of people dehydrated and all that so that is one area that we are going to focus on as the city. During the World Cup, it has not left us with proper infrastructure even, administratively, there are committees that were formed during that time and they continue to guide us in big events like the pending ANC conference,” added Khedama. While the metro prepares to welcome thousands of visitors, it’s still faced with a shortage of accommodation. During the 2010 Soccer World Cup and ANC Centenary celebrations hotels and bed and breakfasts were fully booked.
The same scenario is likely to repeat itself during the ANC conference. The ANC is worried by this. ANC National Spokesperson Keith Khoza says: “We are taking all the residents at the University of the Free State for our delegates. We then extended that to hotels in and around Bloemfontein. We know there is a bit of shortage, but other people who are coming as guests are making their own arrangements in guesthouses, but it looks like will run short of accommodation. Private houses have also availed their houses, but at a premium, and that’s for other delegates who are coming for business. They will make their own arrangements we are trying to cut costs as possible.” Khoza adds that security remains a priority in hosting a successful conference. He says all facilities that will be used have been subjected to stringent security checks. Khoza says the planning of the event is going according to schedule. “We are really on course in terms of our schedule we started rolling out some of the activities in Mangaung to a point that the marquees are almost completed. All the venues have been inspected we are now dealing with little logistical things, like power supply, power points, data points, chairs and tables, so the arrangement is fairly advanced. We will be visiting the CUT (Central University of Technology) to look at the registration sites same arrangement,” says Khoza. The ANC is confident that the event will be successfully staged. The decisions taken at the Mangaung Conference will play a significant role in moving forward. The party says it wants a government that is more responsive to the needs of the country’s citizens.
– By Zimasa Mbewu
