Lottery blocks payment to lavishly funded new music party
Lottery blocks payment to lavishly funded new music party
Blog Article
The Lottery has stopped a grant towards the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA emblem superimposed about initial illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Traditional Music Awards obtained more than R16-million from your Lottery.
Though the Lottery has withheld payment with the 2023 grant subsequent an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Unique Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades in which funders in addition to the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
The size of funding for that once-a-year two night time party is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga authorities has funded the awards with above R41-million soon after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 several years, starting inside the 2020/21 fiscal yr.
This continues to be As well as Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it at first approved for an yearly conventional tunes awards ceremony. Precisely the same event also acquired tens of millions of rand through the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded numerous grants totalling Pretty much R16.four-million towards the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers in the yearly South African Classic Tunes Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of the 2023 grant just after an interior investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered substantial corruption while in the NLC that came about until finally the earlier board and administration was changed in 2022. The new NLC Management is trying to clean up up the corruption with the past.
The NLC’s investigation centered on the two the 2023 funding and before grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of about R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery money to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, is really a director.
Requested if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or any other costs to stage the awards, Goba claimed: “G4 was commissioned to complete a production of the function and obtained paid out for the people services, like to manage and produce the primary event, roadshows, etc. I'm the founder of the SATMA Awards; I am the one who needs to be compensated for building the principle determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to your Particular Investigating Device (SIU). It has requested the SIU to analyze four unique lottery-funded tasks that gained grants in between October 2020 and could 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades exactly where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in that can help fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 within the Countrywide Heritage Council and just around R62,000 from “SABC Cell” in 2020 - a similar economical calendar year where the function acquired Virtually R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million in the Mpumalanga Office of Lifestyle, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards into the tune of in excess of R41-million following it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for three yrs, beginning while in the 2020/21 economical year.
The Mpumalanga govt’s funding for SATMA over that time period was considerably increased than grants to another organisation for cultural jobs and events.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/twenty financial calendar year before ramping up its contribution after signing the settlement to host the awards about the following three decades.
The overall funds submitted for the NLC when Mageza used to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging with the event. Other line goods within the finances integrated R400,000 for “personnel salaries and Gains”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards have been held on fifteen December for the Durban Intercontinental fox888 Convention Centre. Mageza claims it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s services suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which were being very first held in 2006, are staged about two evenings and it's unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants with the NLC, MDCSR and other funders were spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not reply to unique thoughts from GroundUp, such as the price of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As an alternative, he mentioned: “Your concerns are noted. Having said that, we are actually suggested from the NLC this make a difference is remaining investigated through the SIU. Hence, we are unable to reply to your queries right until we are suggested the investigation has long been finished and the amount owed has become paid out to Mageza.”
Just after Mpumalanga “received the right” to host the awards for 3 years, the then provincial Culture, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” to the province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has good financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and What's more, it talks on the Division’s mandate of advertising social cohesion.”