The Lottery has stopped a grant towards the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA symbol superimposed around initial illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Standard Audio Awards gained in excess of R16-million with the Lottery.
However the Lottery has withheld payment on the 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Unique Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in many years where by funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
The dimensions of funding for the annual two evening celebration is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga authorities has funded the awards with around R41-million soon after it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for 3 decades, beginning from the 2020/21 financial yr.
This has become In combination with Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.2-million grant it at first accepted for an annual conventional music awards ceremony. The identical occasion also been given tens of a lot of rand through the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded various grants totalling Virtually R16.four-million to the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers in the yearly South African Traditional Songs Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of a 2023 grant right after an inside investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered massive corruption inside the NLC that came about right until the previous board and administration was replaced in 2022. The new NLC Management is trying to clean up the corruption of the previous.
The NLC’s investigation centered on both equally the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of above R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery funds 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 every other costs to phase the awards, Goba said: “G4 was commissioned to accomplish a manufacture of the celebration and bought compensated for all those providers, like to handle and make the leading celebration, 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 distinctive lottery-funded assignments that been given grants among Oct 2020 and May 2023, together with the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in a long time wherever funders apart 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 over R62,000 from “SABC Cell” in 2020 - exactly the same monetary year by which the event been given 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 following it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for three yrs, beginning from the 2020/21 monetary 12 months.
The Mpumalanga government’s funding for SATMA above that period of time was significantly higher than grants to every other organisation for cultural initiatives and situations.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/twenty economical calendar year prior to ramping up its contribution right after signing the arrangement to host the awards above the next a few decades.
The overall finances submitted to your NLC when Mageza utilized for the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging of your celebration. Other line objects inside the price range included R400,000 for “staff salaries and Rewards”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December in the Durban Global luckyvip77 Conference Centre. Mageza claims it urgently requirements the blocked grant to pay for the event’s assistance companies.
The SATMA awards, which ended up initial held in 2006, are staged in excess of two evenings and it's unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants within the NLC, MDCSR along with other funders have been expended.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to certain queries from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Rather, he stated: “Your questions are pointed out. Having said that, we are actually recommended from the NLC this issue is being investigated via the SIU. Consequently, we cannot respond to your thoughts until finally we have been advised that the investigation has actually been completed and the amount owed has actually been compensated to Mageza.”
After Mpumalanga “won the correct” to host the awards for three several years, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for the province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has positive financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and What's more, it talks to your Division’s mandate of marketing social cohesion.”