After a tug-of-war to get the catering job, it has been more than a month since independent, young black female contractor and caterer Amanda Saka of Elundini Caterers has been waiting for her payment from Senqu local municipality mayor Nomvuyo Mposelwa who is said to be playing cat and mouse games.

EXPOSED!

Saka who catered for more than 3000 people during a rally in the Eastern Cape, she has not been compensated. After trying different avenues and being sent from pillar to post, she took the matter to social media. "We catered for the ANC rally and the Joe Gqabi regional chairperson Mposelwa is saying akhomali [there's no money], it's been more than a month and Elundini Caterers haven't been paid. All we got was ignorance and a bad attitude. We are exhausted by all of this," Saka wrote. "It's frustrating to receive such treatment from leaders, especially women. All we want is the money that we worked for. We have recordings of her saying ikhona imali [there is money] but now ayisekho [there's no money]. My problem is with the treatment we received from Mposelwa from the beginning. The lack of transparency and truth, that's my issue.'

OUTSOURCING FROM OUTSIDE

Elaborating further on the matter, Saka told ZiMoja she would not disclose the amount owed but they had to use funds from their own pockets to cater for the 3000 plus people, knowing they would be paid straight after. "Initially, the catering was supposed to be for 5000 people, Mrs Mphoselwa had given the job to someone else to do the job without involving anyone from our municipality. We were not supposed to hear about it. But because it was a huge provincial rally, it was bound to come out," Saka said, eventually they were brought in along with other catering companies, to share the work. "From the start, there was no transparency whatsoever, and it took us approximately two weeks to get answers. Then the event got postponed." Saka said the job was later split among different caterers in the municipality. "She said she already fundraised money and put it aside for catering, but we are going to get paid after providing our services, which was not a problem."

CHANGE OF PLANS

The mayor made some then made some changes. "She informed us the number of heads would be 3000 instead of 5000 as they could no longer afford more. She also asked us to drop the prices of our initial food, and we agreed." Saka said everything went according to plan on the day of delivery. "But something was strange, there were food parcels for the 2000 people whom she claimed not to afford to pay for. No one knew who made those parcels, and she was not transparent. In addition, she brought a friend from Sterkspruit to also come and cater to Mount Clare, 13,211 km away - which is illegal, mind you. But she did it anyone because she is the mayor and in power."

REACHING OUT

After the event, Saka made attempts to reach out to the mayor for payment. "We sent emails, phone calls and we did not get a response," she said. " This was before she went to New York for an event representing women at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women conference. Then she came back and still did not reply to us," Saka added. "We sent emails, copying a number of people, but directing it to her as she was the one responsible for catering." Saka concluded that to add the nail to the coffin, they met face to face and were told off. "She handed out food parcels coming from a company in Aliwal North and did not use any of us. Are there no service providers in Elundini? As if we do not exist. She does as she pleases; she does not respect us. At the food parcel handout, we decided to go speak to her, and she refused. She said 'Andizelanga lonto apha and ayikho imali' (isiXhosa: I didn't come here for that, and there is no money). We have called her so many times with no response, and when we see her in a public space, she dismisses us with an attitude. We just want our money." At the time of publishing, no one from the municipality had responded to questions regarding the payments.