Durban - Attendees at the historic coronation ceremony of King Misuzulu kaZwelithini at the Moses Mabhida stadium on Saturday are crying foul due to the poor sound quality that left them unable to hear many of the important speeches delivered on the day.
Political parties in KwaZulu-Natal are demanding that the premier’s office should account for the poor sound quality that tarnished this historic day where the king received his kingship certificate from President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The parties and the attendees told The Mercury that they had to settle for just watching the event as they missed out on all the important speeches that were delivered.
Thousands of people packed the stadium to celebrate the event, thousands more were expected to view the proceedings from other city approved venues as the limit on the number of people inside the stadium had been pegged at around 48 000.
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said the sound system was a serious let-down.
“If the service provider has been paid, we are questioning what he was paid for, because he did not deliver.
“For the entire event we kept being told that the sound was being fixed but nothing even changed until the event was over,” he said.
Hlabisa said the sound quality had watered down the experience of the event and embarrassed the country in front of hundreds of important delegates who had travelled from afar to be part of the ceremony.
“The service provider failed to deliver or that was sabotage, but who would want to sabotage everyone including the president, the king and the Zulu prime minister,” he said, adding that the provincial government which was in charge of the process should account for what happened.
EFF leader Julius Malema also raised questions over the quality of the sound system.
On his Twitter page, Malema blamed the ANC for the problems which he said almost ruined the event.
“ANC government almost collapsed it by providing mediocre sound, stage and screens,” the EFF leader wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
EFF provincial leader Mongezi Twala said that the party had written to KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube demanding answers about the poor sound system and the stage.
“It was really bad and we have written to the office of the premier as the Royal Household is under the office of the premier.
“We want to know who was the service provider and when were the specifications for the (work contract) for instance.
“There were two screens there but only one was working,” said Twala.
During the event, people took to social media to complain about the sound.
One person posted, “ANC chair and MEC for Economic Development Siboniso Duma, apologise to King Misuzulu for the terrible sound at the Moses Mabhida stadium.”
“The sound quality at the king’s coronation is horrendous.
“Even the king’s face showed his disappointment,” said another person on Twitter
Attempts to reach the ANC in the province were unsuccessful.
Provincial government spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said the event was a success, “after events there is a close out report, we will learn from that close out report what were the challenges.”
Lungi Mtshali from the National Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs said he was aware of the complaints and would receive a full report from the unit responsible today.
“This was unfortunate. When the system was tested it worked fine. We would like to apologise to all those who could not hear,” he said.