Cultural Affairs and Sport
- whether the closed-bidding process for the stadium was transparent by not excluding any of the role players, including the rugby and football clubs; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
11. (1) The selling of the Newlands Rugby stadium is a private matter being undertaken by the Western Province Rugby Union WPRFU and as a result the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport is not involved this process. The WPRFU took a decision to move to Cape Town Stadium and have subsequently put out a request for proposals in relation to the Newlands Rugby Stadium property. Interested parties have also applied to Heritage Western Cape (HWC) to have the Newlands stadium declared a Provincial Heritage Site (PHS) in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act. HWC's Inventories, Gradings and Interpretations Committee (IGIC) is currently implementing a 60-day public consultation process for comments on the PHS application.
11.(2) According to a statement by the WPRFU administrator an external consultancy was obtained to ensure the process is transparent and judged entirely on commercial merits. The request for proposals was a public one, open for all to apply. Both processes are underway.
