Lottery blocks payment to lavishly funded music event
Lottery blocks payment to lavishly funded music event
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The Lottery has stopped a grant for the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed over initial illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common Tunes Awards obtained around R16-million with the Lottery.
Even so the Lottery has withheld payment of your 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Distinctive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years where by funders other than the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
The scale of funding for that annual two night time event is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with in excess of R41-million after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for three several years, commencing within the 2020/21 economic calendar year.
This continues to be in addition to Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it to begin with permitted for an annual traditional music awards ceremony. The same celebration also acquired tens of numerous rand with the Mpumalanga provincial governing administration.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded quite a few grants totalling Just about R16.4-million into the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers of the yearly South African Standard New music Awards (SATMA).
But it surely halted the payment of a 2023 grant just after an inner investigation.
GroundUp has exposed large corruption inside the NLC that passed off right until the earlier board and management was replaced in 2022. The brand new NLC Management is attempting to clean up up the corruption of the earlier.
The NLC’s investigation focused on equally the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of around R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery funds to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, is really a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or another costs to stage the awards, Goba claimed: “G4 was commissioned to accomplish a creation of the occasion and bought paid out for all those providers, like to deal with and generate the leading party, roadshows, and so on. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I'm the one who must be compensated for making the principle dependant on affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation to your Exclusive Investigating Device (SIU). It's questioned the SIU to research four various lottery-funded tasks that been given grants amongst Oct 2020 and May 2023, plus the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in a long time where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 in the Nationwide Heritage Council and just over R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - the same financial calendar year wherein the occasion acquired Just about R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million within the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards for the tune of above R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for three several years, beginning inside the 2020/21 economic year.
The Mpumalanga government’s funding for SATMA about that time period was significantly increased than grants to every other organisation for cultural tasks and situations.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 money year just before ramping up its contribution just after signing the agreement to host the awards more than the following 3 decades.
The entire funds submitted on the NLC when Mageza applied for the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allotted for the particular staging on the function. Other line things inside the price range incorporated R400,000 for “staff salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards ended up held on 15 December within the Durban Worldwide เช ค หวย Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently desires the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s support vendors.
The SATMA awards, which have been initial held in 2006, are staged around two nights and it can be unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants within the NLC, MDCSR and also other funders were being spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not reply to certain inquiries from GroundUp, such as the price of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As a substitute, he reported: “Your thoughts are pointed out. However, we have already been advised through the NLC that this make any difference is staying investigated because of the SIU. That's why, we can't reply to your inquiries right up until we're encouraged that the investigation has actually been finished and the quantity owed is compensated to Mageza.”
Following Mpumalanga “received the proper” to host the awards for three decades, the then provincial Culture, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” for the province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has good financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks for the Division’s mandate of marketing social cohesion.”