BULAWAYO – Bulawayo mayor David Coltart abruptly left a meeting of the city’s finance committee after a row erupted over the planned spending of US$300,000 on the Bulawayo Arts Festival in June, ZimLive has learnt.

Tempers flared in the April 23 meeting after the tabling of a request to fund the festival to be held from 2 to 5 June. The festival follows the commemoration of Bulawayo Day on June 1.

Coltart told councillors he had another engagement before walking out of the meeting. Before leaving, he told the other councillors on the committee that the city had other priority projects in need of funding and it would be hard to justify the expenditure on a cultural festival, according to two sources who were present.

Bulawayo’s director of housing Dictor Khumalo made the request for funding the festival which was first held in 2019 following lobbying by the arts industry.

“Annually, council budgets for the festival. This year a total of US$300,000 has been provisionally budgeted for the festival in the hold on vote,” Khumalo said in the request.

Coltart told councillors that while the festival aimed at showcasing the city’s rich cultural heritage and diversity was a noble idea, diverting scarce council finances to the project would be unjustifiable.

He was supported ward 22 councillor Bruce Moyo (CCC) and ward 24 councillor Tavengwa Zidya (Zanu PF) in resisting the proposal, whose proponents included ward 28 councillor Ntando Ndlovu (CCC) and the committee’s chairman, ward 26 councillor Mpumelelo Moyo (CCC).

“Most of the councillors felt that the council administration led by the town clerk (Christopher Dube) and Khumalo was behind the push for the council to bankroll the festival. Councillors were not satisfied the money, if released, would be properly accounted for anyway,” a councillor who attended the meeting said.

Zidya told councillors that he would rather the money was spent on repairing street lights and buying plumbing equipment so that the council responds to reports on blocked sewers promptly.

Moyo said the local authority’s failing sewer system was a major concern as it took between two and three weeks for reported faults to be attended to as the engineering department constantly had no transport and fuel.

Ndlovu made an impassioned plea for the release of the money, arguing for a deliberate programme to support local artists that he said were not getting a fair shot at showcasing themselves during major music concerts.

Coltart confirmed that he left the meeting early, but denied this was in frustration over the debate.

“I didn’t leave in protest,” he told ZimLive. “When I left there appeared to be a broad consensus that it would be inappropriate to spend this money given our major water infrastructural needs during this drought year.”

The meeting broke without a resolution on the contentious proposal.