The Lottery has stopped a grant to your lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA symbol superimposed in excess of primary illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Regular Music Awards acquired in excess of R16-million through the Lottery.
Though the Lottery has withheld payment of your 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Specific Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years the place funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.
The scale of funding with the annual two evening function is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga federal government has funded the awards with around R41-million right after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 years, beginning within the 2020/21 economic yr.
This has actually been in addition to Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.two-million grant it in the beginning permitted for an once-a-year conventional audio awards ceremony. A similar party also gained tens of an incredible number of rand with the Mpumalanga provincial federal government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded numerous grants totalling almost R16.4-million into the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers of your annual South African Regular Music Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of a 2023 grant following an inside investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered significant corruption inside the NLC that befell right up until the past board and administration was replaced in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is aiming to cleanse up the corruption from the previous.
The NLC’s investigation focused on each the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of around R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery money to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is actually a director.
Asked if Mageza paid out G4 a licencing or almost every other expenses to stage the awards, Goba explained: “G4 was commissioned to perform a production of the event and obtained paid out for those products and services, like to handle and develop the principle event, roadshows, etcetera. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I'm the 1 who have to be compensated for building the idea based upon affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation to your Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU). It's got questioned the SIU to research four various lottery-funded tasks that obtained grants between Oct 2020 and May 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also asked the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades the place funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 through the Countrywide Heritage Council and just more than R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - a similar fiscal 12 months in which the occasion acquired Pretty much R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million through the Mpumalanga Section of Society, Sporting activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards towards the tune of above R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, commencing from the 2020/21 fiscal 12 months.
The Mpumalanga authorities’s funding for SATMA over that period was significantly increased than grants to every other organisation for cultural jobs and functions.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA inside the 2019/20 economical yr right before ramping up its contribution soon after signing the settlement to host the awards above another a few years.
The total funds submitted into the NLC when Mageza used to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the particular staging of the event. Other line items during the spending budget included R400,000 for “staff salaries and Positive aspects”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards ended up held on fifteen December on the Durban Intercontinental lottovip Convention Centre. Mageza states it urgently requires the blocked grant to pay the party’s provider vendors.
The SATMA awards, which ended up initial held in 2006, are staged around two nights and it truly is unclear how the tens of tens of millions in grants through the NLC, MDCSR and other funders have been used.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to specific concerns from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As an alternative, he claimed: “Your thoughts are noted. However, we have been encouraged by the NLC this issue is currently being investigated through the SIU. Hence, we are unable to respond to your issues until finally we've been advised the investigation has long been finished and the quantity owed has been paid to Mageza.”
Immediately after Mpumalanga “received the proper” to host the awards for three a long time, the then provincial Tradition, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for the province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has optimistic economic spinoffs for the Mpumalanga coffers and In addition, it talks on the Section’s mandate of advertising and marketing social cohesion.”