Durban - Tsogo Sun and the Msunduzi Municipality are to be partners in an effort to establish the Golden Horse Sprint as the premier racing event in the country, one up on the Vodacom Durban July and Cape Town’s J&B Met.
The endeavour to promote tourism and rebrand the city has seen the council injecting money into the annual Msunduzi Jazz Festival, which was inaugerated last year.
At an executive committee meeting on Wednesday, councillors listened to two presentations on how the events would benefit Pietermaritzburg.
The municipality decided to enter into a three-year partnership with Tsogo and Starlight Promotions – who hosted the jazz festival – which would see it invest more than R11m.
It would give Tsogo R4m this year and R2-million over the next two years. The festival would benefit from R1m this year, with the amount increasing in line with the consumer price index in subsequent years.
The DA’s Mergan Chetty opposed the decision. He said the money should be spent on housing and electricity.
“Money should be spent on lifting service… tourism has been crippled due to roads being riddled with potholes… tourism is on the decline because of poor infrastructure,” he said.
ANC councillor Jabu Ngubo disagreed, saying the partnerships would assist economic development.
Ray Ngcobo, the deputy municipal manager of economic development, emphasised the importance of tourism, saying: “We can’t deal with issues of poverty unless we jack up our economy.”
If one had to look at sectors driving the economy, tourism had overtaken gold as a contributor, Ngcobo said.
The city’s acting marketing manager, Madeline Plaatjies, said the Golden Horse Sprint was one of four major horse racing events in the country.
It was first run as the Gilbey’s Stakes in 1962. The belief was that it could become the premier race for speed, “where the fastest horses come to race”.
Plaatjies said the main focus of the partnership would be to establish the race as a brand, linked to the city.
The owners of the event wanted to shoot a campaign in Pietermaritzburg for television that would show recognisable buildings with horses running past. In the month of the flighting, the city would receive more than R7m worth of coverage. Reputable entertainers to be included in the building of the brand included kwaito star Zakes Bantwini, house band Micasa and well-known DJs.
Municipal manager Mxolisi Nkosi said three years would be sufficient to develop a brand that would attract big sponsors for the race. - The Mercury