NAC must account for Rosemary Mangope’s golden handshake

6 May 2022

During the committee meeting on Tuesday, the DA asked the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture, Beauty Dlulane, to request the urgent appearance of the National Arts Council (NAC) board in Parliament to explain the apparent golden handshake the now former NAC CEO, Rosemary Mangope, received.

Despite an ongoing disciplinary hearing against her after an investigation into alleged irregularities and inconsistencies in the management, adjudication, and approval of Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) applications, Mangope was allowed to resign and the NAC has dropped all the charges.

That this was allowed to happen is shocking, but not surprising. No doubt, Rosemary Mangope will soon resurface in another position of power at a public entity where she will once again be allowed to irregularly and inconsistently manage to the detriment of beneficiaries.

It was under Mangope’s management that the NAC bungled Covid-relief and allowed artists to starve. The fact that the terms of the agreement between Mangope and the NAC – a public entity – is confidential just reeks of further possible malfeasance. South Africans, especially our long-suffering arts community, deserves to know the intimate details of Mangope’s pardon. The DA will not rest until all is in the open.

Issued by Veronica van Dyk, DA Deputy Shadow Minister for Sports, Arts and Culture, 6 May 2022