Cape Town - The ANC is up in arms over the R19 million it says the City has spent on catering and events after just seven months into the new financial year, while the City says the ANC is confused as it was the budget for the entire year.

Deputy mayor Ian Neilson said the City had spent R7m in the first seven months of the financial year.

The ANC City caucus leader Xolani Sotashe recently wrote a letter to the Speaker of the council asking what the nature of these events were, but the City said the information circulated by the ANC was inaccurate.

Sotashe wrote in the letter: “This fortune was irregular expenditure from July 1 till now. This means that in seven months, the DA-led City has blown an average of R2 78 462.57 per month on a catering frenzy. This is absolutely disgusting, given that many of our poorer areas in Cape Town are battling to get basic services.”

According to Sotashe, out of the more than R19m splurged on events, the safety and security directorate has spent R15 512 677 on catering.