The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed about unique illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Traditional Songs Awards gained about R16-million within the Lottery.
Nevertheless the Lottery has withheld payment in the 2023 grant subsequent an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Distinctive Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades in which funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
The dimensions of funding with the yearly two night time party is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with over R41-million right after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for three yrs, beginning inside the 2020/21 economical year.
This is In combination with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it to begin with permitted for an yearly classic audio awards ceremony. The identical function also gained tens of many rand with the Mpumalanga provincial govt.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling Practically R16.4-million into the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers in the once-a-year South African Regular Songs Awards (SATMA).
However it halted the payment of a 2023 grant following an inside investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered huge corruption inside the NLC that befell until finally the past board and administration was changed in 2022. The brand new NLC Management is aiming to cleanse up the corruption with 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 above R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, can be a director.
Asked if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or almost every other costs to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a production of the function and got paid out for people expert services, like to manage and make the main occasion, roadshows, and many others. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the a person who should be compensated for developing the concept depending on affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation for the Specific Investigating Unit (SIU). It has questioned the SIU to research four different lottery-funded projects that obtained grants in between Oct 2020 and should 2023, together with the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs the place funders apart from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 from the National Heritage Council and just about R62,000 from “SABC Mobile” in 2020 - the same economical calendar year during which the function gained Just about R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million in the Mpumalanga Department of Tradition, Sports activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards to your tune of around R41-million after it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, starting within the 2020/21 monetary year.
The Mpumalanga federal government’s funding for SATMA in excess of that period was considerably greater than grants to another organisation for cultural initiatives and functions.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA during the 2019/20 economical 12 months just before ramping up its contribution after signing the arrangement to host the awards in excess of another a few many years.
The overall budget submitted towards the NLC when Mageza utilized for that disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allocated for the actual staging on the celebration. Other line goods in the budget integrated R400,000 for “staff salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards were being held on fifteen December for the Durban Worldwide หุ้น ชอง 9 Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay the event’s support providers.
The SATMA awards, which were to start with held in 2006, are staged about two evenings and it can be unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants from the NLC, MDCSR and various funders had been put in.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't respond to distinct concerns from GroundUp, including the price of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Instead, he claimed: “Your thoughts are mentioned. Nonetheless, we are already recommended with the NLC that this issue is becoming investigated by the SIU. Consequently, we can not reply to your issues right up until we are suggested which the investigation has actually been finished and the amount owed has long been paid to Mageza.”
Right after Mpumalanga “received the right” to host the awards for three many years, the then provincial Tradition, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” to the province.
“Internet hosting the SATMA Awards has constructive economic spinoffs to the Mpumalanga coffers and In addition it talks to the Office’s mandate of promoting social cohesion.”