Durban — An hour before the now infamous Rugby World Cup trophy-lifting row played out on the steps of Durban’s City Hall, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, KwaZulu-Natal’s premier, and MEC Siboniso Duma were left by the roadside amid the Springboks’ trophy parade through the city.
Both heavyweight provincial politicians were passengers on the same bus for nearly four hours, trailing the rugby players during last Saturday’s procession, before the vehicle stopped on the side of Josiah Gumede Road, a short distance from Fields Hill (M13).
It soon emerged that the driver of the bus was ordered by the bus’s owners to halt the vehicle because payment had not been received from the main contractor.
Dube-Ncube appealed to the owner over the telephone to continue with the journey, but to no avail.
Shortly thereafter, the premier together with children in her company and some eThekwini Municipality officials found their way onto another of the open-top buses and joined the parade through Kloof and eventually into the CBD.
Some journalists, who were also on the bus, were assisted with transport by support vehicles in the cavalcade.
However, about 10 journalists and Duma, the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs remained in the halted vehicle.
The driver then agreed to transport the journalists back into the CBD, while the MEC was collected from the roadside and was part of proceedings at the City Hall.
Natasha Pillay, the director of Centurion Limos, the company that owns the bus, said it was an unfortunate incident and apologised for leaving passengers stranded.
“The bus was stopped because we didn’t receive payment. We were subcontracted by Jozi Vibes Entertainment’s owner to do the trip.
“Lawrence Tinashe (Mupanomunda) promised us fees in full before the Durban trip but didn’t pay as promised.”
Pillay said their bus was used during the Springboks parade in Gauteng but not in Cape Town. When they arrived in Durban, all they received were payment promises and the runaround on Saturday before they aborted the mission. “It wasn’t a nice experience for us as a service provider. Letting down the client is not how we work.
“At the same time, we were out of pocket. If we continued without the drivers being paid, we were going to incur more costs. It was a Catch-22 situation for us.”
She confirmed that she spoke to Dube-Ncube who was on the bus at the time and explained their plight.
“The premier was upset but understood our situation.”
Centurion Limos’ bus was back with the Springboks parade in East London last Sunday after they received partial payment the evening before and the balance on the day.
Pillay said that Mupanomunda also used their services after landing the contract for the Springboks’ 2019 World Cup trophy tour, but were also not fully paid on that occasion.
“We lost funds with him in 2019 and complained to SA Rugby.”
Pillay said after their 2019 experience, they accepted work “in good faith” from Jozi Vibes this year but were let down.
“Going forward we will not be working with him again,” Pillay said.
Mupanomunda said Pillay’s allegations were “disingenuous” and “ridiculous”.
“That money had absolutely nothing to do with Durban. The agreement was that they would get their money after the Durban trip.”
Mupanomunda said the balance owed was for the last leg of the tour, which he promised to pay on Saturday evening but this was disregarded.
He said the business he had given Centurion Limos during 2023 ran into the hundreds of thousands and he could not understand why they haggled over a small amount.
On why he used Pillay’s services in East London, Mupanomunda said Saru asked him to solve the situation and he bit the bullet.
“I had to decide whether I wanted to let the client down or put my ego aside and honour the contract.”
Mupanomunda said the 2019 claim was ridiculous because Centurion Limos had done much work with him in 2023 and they accepted the Springbok assignment.
The MEC’s office did not respond to questions while the premier’s communications team referred the Sunday Tribune to the eThekwini Municipality.
The municipality referred the newspaper to SA Rugby.
In a statement released by SA Rugby to some members of the media last Saturday, they said: “SA Rugby sincerely apologises to the media. The arrangements that had been put in place were not delivered and we understand any unhappiness with the inconvenience caused.”
In a later statement they said lessons learnt from the 2023 event would inform planning should such a tour be repeated.
“The tour was in background planning for several weeks but only became real at the end of the World Cup final (October 28) and started four days later with the support of multiple public and private stakeholders and suppliers.”
Sunday Tribune