The Lottery has stopped a grant for the lavishly funded yearly SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed in excess of primary illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Conventional Songs Awards received over R16-million within the Lottery.
Nevertheless the Lottery has withheld payment from the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Unique Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in many years wherever funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
The scale of funding for that once-a-year two night time event is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga federal government has funded the awards with around R41-million following it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for three several years, starting while in the 2020/21 money 12 months.
This has become Besides Lottery funding.
The Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it in the beginning permitted for an annual traditional tunes awards ceremony. Precisely the same event also acquired tens of countless rand through the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling almost R16.4-million for the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers with the once-a-year South African Traditional Music Awards (SATMA).
Nevertheless it halted the payment of a 2023 grant right after an inner investigation.
GroundUp has exposed huge corruption within the NLC that happened until finally the prior board and administration was replaced in 2022. The new NLC Management is attempting 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 around R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery cash to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, can be a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or some other service fees to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a creation of the event and received paid for all those expert services, like to control and develop the most crucial party, roadshows, and many others. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I'm the just one who need to be compensated for generating the notion according to affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation on the Unique 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, plus the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in years in which funders besides the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 from the National Heritage Council and just more than R62,000 from “SABC Mobile” in 2020 - exactly the same economic year by which the event received Pretty much R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million within the Mpumalanga Section of Tradition, Sporting activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards to your tune of above R41-million after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for three yrs, beginning while in the 2020/21 financial yr.
The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA more than that time period was considerably bigger than grants to any other organisation for cultural tasks and functions.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA while in the 2019/20 fiscal yr ahead of ramping up its contribution soon after signing the arrangement to host the awards above the following a few yrs.
The overall funds submitted towards the NLC when Mageza used to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging of your celebration. Other line products during the funds included R400,000 for “personnel salaries and Added benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on 15 December with the Durban Intercontinental ตรวจ หวย ผล สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล งวด Convention Centre. Mageza claims it urgently wants the blocked grant to pay for the function’s service suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which were 1st held in 2006, are staged over two nights and it can be unclear how the tens of millions in grants from your NLC, MDCSR together with other funders were invested.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to particular queries from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Rather, he reported: “Your issues are mentioned. On the other hand, we have been encouraged by the NLC this subject is currently being investigated through the SIU. Consequently, we can't reply to your queries until we have been advised the investigation continues to be done and the amount owed has actually been compensated to Mageza.”
Following Mpumalanga “gained the ideal” to host the awards for three yrs, the then provincial Society, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” for the province.
“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has beneficial financial spinoffs to the Mpumalanga coffers and Additionally, it talks towards the Department’s mandate of advertising and marketing social cohesion.”