The Lottery has stopped a grant on the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed in excess of first illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common New music Awards been given about R16-million through the Lottery.
Although the Lottery has withheld payment on the 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Particular Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in many years where by funders apart from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
The scale of funding for that once-a-year two night function is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga authorities has funded the awards with in excess of R41-million just after it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for three a long time, beginning while in the 2020/21 fiscal 12 months.
This has actually been in addition to Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.two-million grant it originally accredited for an annual common tunes awards ceremony. Precisely the same occasion also been given tens of a lot of rand from your Mpumalanga provincial governing administration.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded numerous grants totalling almost R16.4-million on the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers from the yearly South African Common Music Awards (SATMA).
Nevertheless it halted the payment of the 2023 grant just after an interior investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered large corruption during the NLC that took place until the prior board and administration was changed in 2022. The new NLC leadership is seeking to cleanse up the corruption in the past.
The NLC’s investigation centered on equally the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of around R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is a director.
Requested if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or any other expenses to stage the awards, Goba reported: “G4 was commissioned to perform a production of the occasion and obtained compensated for those providers, like to handle and develop the most crucial event, roadshows, etc. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the a single who has to be compensated for producing the idea according to affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation on the Particular Investigating Device (SIU). It has questioned the SIU to investigate 4 various lottery-funded jobs that acquired grants 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 many years where by funders other than the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 with the Countrywide Heritage Council and just around R62,000 from “SABC Cell” in 2020 - the identical economic yr through which the celebration gained Just about R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million in the Mpumalanga Office of Lifestyle, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards to the tune of about R41-million soon after it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for 3 a long time, commencing inside the 2020/21 financial yr.
The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA above that interval was significantly greater than grants to almost every other organisation for cultural jobs and events.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA within the 2019/20 financial year prior to ramping up its contribution following signing the settlement to host the awards over the following three many years.
The full finances submitted to the NLC when Mageza applied for the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the particular staging with the function. Other line products in the spending plan involved R400,000 for “staff salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December in the Durban Intercontinental หวย วัน นี้ Conference Centre. Mageza states it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay the event’s assistance companies.
The SATMA awards, which were being very first held in 2006, are staged around two nights and it is actually unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants with the NLC, MDCSR along with other funders ended up used.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to unique questions from GroundUp, such as the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
In its place, he said: “Your questions are mentioned. Nevertheless, we have already been advised via the NLC that this make a difference is being investigated because of the SIU. That's why, we can not reply to your queries until we're encouraged that the investigation has become completed and the amount owed has become compensated to Mageza.”
After Mpumalanga “won the best” to host the awards for 3 yrs, the then provincial Society, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” with the province.
“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has favourable financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks towards the Department’s mandate of marketing social cohesion.”