The Lottery has stopped a grant into the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed in excess of initial illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common Tunes Awards acquired above R16-million in the Lottery.
Nevertheless the Lottery has withheld payment of the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has asked the Exclusive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years exactly where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
The size of funding for that once-a-year two night occasion is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga govt has funded the awards with around R41-million following it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for three many years, beginning within the 2020/21 financial calendar year.
This has long been in addition to Lottery funding.
The Nationwide Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it initially authorised for an yearly traditional tunes awards ceremony. Precisely the same event also gained tens of numerous rand within the Mpumalanga provincial authorities.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded various grants totalling Nearly R16.4-million on the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers of your once-a-year South African Conventional Songs Awards (SATMA).
But it surely halted the payment of the 2023 grant immediately after an inside investigation.
GroundUp has exposed substantial corruption while in the NLC that passed off until eventually the preceding board and management was changed in 2022. The new NLC Management is aiming to thoroughly clean up the corruption from the earlier.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both of those the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of more than R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery funds to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is a director.
Asked if Mageza paid out G4 a licencing or any other costs to phase the awards, Goba explained: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a manufacture of the event and acquired compensated for all those services, like to manage and make the most crucial event, roadshows, and so on. I am the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I'm the just one who must be compensated for creating the idea determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation on the Specific Investigating Device (SIU). It's requested the SIU to research 4 diverse lottery-funded initiatives that acquired grants among Oct 2020 and will 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years exactly where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 with the Countrywide Heritage Council and just more than R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - precisely the same money calendar year by which the function acquired Virtually R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million from the Mpumalanga Division of Tradition, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards for the tune of in excess of R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 a long time, beginning within the 2020/21 financial calendar year.
The Mpumalanga govt’s funding for SATMA above that interval was considerably bigger than grants to some other organisation for cultural jobs and activities.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 monetary 12 months in advance of ramping up its contribution right after signing the agreement to host the awards over the next a few decades.
The full finances submitted to your NLC when Mageza applied with the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the particular staging on the event. Other line goods inside the budget involved R400,000 for “staff salaries and Rewards”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards were held on 15 December with the Durban Intercontinental ตรวจ หวย ลาว วัน นี้ Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay for the event’s company companies.
The SATMA awards, which were being 1st held in 2006, are staged more than two evenings and it truly is unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants within the NLC, MDCSR and other funders have been used.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to certain issues from GroundUp, such as the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Instead, he stated: “Your concerns are noted. Nevertheless, we have already been advised by the NLC this make a difference is becoming investigated by the SIU. For this reason, we can not reply to your inquiries until finally we've been suggested the investigation continues to be concluded and the quantity owed continues to be paid out to Mageza.”
Just after Mpumalanga “received the ideal” to host the awards for 3 a long time, the then provincial Tradition, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for your province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has good economic spinoffs with the Mpumalanga coffers and Additionally, it talks towards the Department’s mandate of promoting social cohesion.”