Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:23:30 +0000
Government Complex management in Lusaka have forced the Cathedral of the Holy Cross fundraising committee to postpone the dinner they were supposed to host on Saturday at the venue because the complex would be hosting the wedding of a senior government official’s daughter.
This is despite the committee having made and paid for the booking of the venue as early as March this year.
However, the decision to force the committee out has however shocked the management at the complex who said they were acting on directives from a senior government official.
Some members of the public who had bought tickets at the cost of K300, 000 complained about the postponement and expressed shock that such an inappropriate directive could be given.
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross has been celebrating its golden jubilee and the dinner was supposed to be used to fundraise about K200 million to be used for repairs at the church.
“This is very bad. We can not believe that government can do this to us because we have always believed that the church and government worked together. But who ever gave the directive has really disturbed our programme” one of the members of the public who had bought a ticket said.
The government complex management has instead offered the church to go ahead with its dinner programme on Wednesday but the committee feels the turn out will not be good.
“We hear that even the groom went to the complex to talk to the management to ensure that the church programme was cancelled and postponed to a later date. They have thrown our plans into disarray” some members of the public said.
The celebrations were launched a few months ago with a cocktail party and are expected to continue for the rest of the year.
It is believed that the management at the complex were told to cancel the bookings for Saturday evening, irrespective of who had made the booking.
“This has really shocked us and we really feel bad for the organizers because the dinner was supposed to be this weekend and the notice to move out was just too short. They are now struggling to inform those of us that they have purchased tickets about the postponement. It is not easy” a ticket holder said.
