The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed in excess of primary illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Traditional Music Awards received around R16-million through the Lottery.
Even so the Lottery has withheld payment from the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has asked the Exclusive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
The scale of funding for your yearly two evening celebration is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with above R41-million soon after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, starting while in the 2020/21 fiscal yr.
This is As well as Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it at first authorized for an once-a-year standard new music awards ceremony. The exact same occasion also gained tens of numerous rand within the Mpumalanga provincial federal government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded quite a few grants totalling Nearly R16.4-million on the Mageza Heritage Basis, 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 massive corruption in the NLC that took place until the past board and management was changed in 2022. The new NLC Management is aiming to thoroughly clean up the corruption of the previous.
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 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 expenses to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to perform a manufacture of the celebration and bought compensated for those solutions, like to handle and create the key occasion, roadshows, and so on. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the 1 who must be compensated for building the strategy determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to your Particular Investigating Device (SIU). It has requested the SIU to investigate four distinctive lottery-funded tasks that gained grants in between October 2020 and should 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in years exactly where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 from the Countrywide Heritage Council and just over R62,000 from “SABC Cell” in 2020 - the same financial year wherein the party gained Practically R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million from your Mpumalanga Department of Society, Sports activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards to the tune of about R41-million right after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for three decades, beginning from the 2020/21 monetary 12 months.
The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA more than that period of time was considerably bigger than grants to any other organisation for cultural tasks and activities.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA while in the 2019/20 economic yr prior to ramping up its contribution right after signing the agreement to host the awards over another 3 many years.
The total spending plan submitted on the NLC when Mageza applied for that disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging of your function. Other line merchandise inside the budget incorporated R400,000 for “staff salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards ended up held on fifteen December within the Durban International หวย ลาว ย้อน หลัง Conference Centre. Mageza says it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay for the function’s company companies.
The SATMA awards, which ended up first held in 2006, are staged above two evenings and it is actually unclear how the tens of millions in grants from your NLC, MDCSR and various funders were being spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to distinct issues from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As an alternative, he stated: “Your concerns are noted. Having said that, we are actually suggested from the NLC this make a difference is being investigated because of the SIU. Consequently, we cannot respond to your issues till we have been encouraged that the investigation is concluded and the quantity owed has been paid to Mageza.”
Right after Mpumalanga “gained the best” to host the awards for 3 yrs, 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 to the Mpumalanga coffers and Furthermore, it talks for the Department’s mandate of endorsing social cohesion.”