DA meets with artists at sit-in at NAC office

12 March 2021

Yesterday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) met with artists staging a sit-in at the National Arts Council (NAC) offices in Johannesburg.

The sit-in started last week when Sibongile Mngoma, an opera singer and president of Im4theArts and the South African United Cultural and Creative Industries Federation (SAUCCIF), went to the NAC offices in order to obtain a list of the approved beneficiaries of the R300 million provided by the Presidential Economic Stimulus Programme (PESP) relief funding. This after the NAC announced that it would be breaking contracts with the more than 600 artists who have applied for this funding, many of whom have already commenced their projects and negotiated subsequent job contracts with others in the arts and culture sectors.

The artists participating in the sit-in have raised a number of issues, some of which the DA has also raised in Parliament before:

A list of all those who have been paid during the first, second and third streams of Covid-19 relief funding and how much they received;

Has stream 1 been completed;

A full list of those who received funding during stream 2, those that were announced as well as the those not yet announced;

A full list of all 1 300 PESP recipients;

A comprehensive timeline for when payments would be finalized for all those who have signed contracts;

A comprehensive timeline for when payments and contracts would be finalized for those who yet to sign contracts;

A timeline for when payments, contracts and letters will be finalized for all those still under review;

When are those who have been rejected being notified;

An independent audit on all Covid-19 relief funding expenditure for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the NAC;

An explanation for the lack of proper consultation of the arts and culture sector before the appointment of the Ministerial Advisory Team (MAT); and

Why the NAC has yet to properly engage with artists staging the sit-in at their offices.

The DA challenges the Minster of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, to follow our example and meet these artists at the NAC offices next week Monday in order to directly engage with them and hear their concerns.

The arts and culture sector is on its knees and needs all the help it can get. Instead, the Minister has so far treated artists with callous derision. This must stop immediately if this industry is to survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

Issued by Tsepo Mhlongo, DA Shadow Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, 12 March 2021