The Lottery has stopped a grant for the lavishly funded yearly SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA brand superimposed over original illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Conventional Songs Awards received around R16-million with the Lottery.
Although the Lottery has withheld payment in the 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Special Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs exactly where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
The scale of funding to the yearly two evening party is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga authorities has funded the awards with above R41-million soon after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 several years, starting within the 2020/21 monetary year.
This has been Along with Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it initially authorised for an yearly common audio awards ceremony. Exactly the same party also obtained tens of many rand from your Mpumalanga provincial governing administration.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded a number of grants totalling Just about R16.four-million into the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers from the annual South African Standard Audio Awards (SATMA).
But it surely halted the payment of the 2023 grant immediately after an inside investigation.
GroundUp has exposed substantial corruption while in the NLC that came about right up until the earlier board and administration was replaced in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is attempting to cleanse up the corruption on the past.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of above R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is often a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or some other service fees to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to perform a manufacture of the celebration and bought compensated for those solutions, like to manage and create the key occasion, roadshows, and so on. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the one 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 analyze four distinctive lottery-funded tasks that been given grants in between October 2020 and could 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in years in which 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 monetary calendar year wherein the party gained Practically R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million from your Mpumalanga Department of Lifestyle, 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 financial yr.
The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA more than that time period was considerably better than grants to another organisation for cultural projects and occasions.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA inside the 2019/20 monetary year prior to ramping up its contribution following signing the agreement to host the awards around the subsequent 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 items while in the budget provided R400,000 for “staff salaries and Advantages”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “journey.”
The awards ended up held on fifteen December at the Durban Worldwide หวย ลาว ออก วัน นี้ สด Conference Centre. Mageza says it urgently desires the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s services suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which were very first held in 2006, are staged around two evenings and it really is unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants from the NLC, MDCSR along with other funders ended up expended.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't respond to distinct inquiries from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Rather, he stated: “Your concerns are noted. However, we have been recommended with the NLC this subject is getting investigated by the SIU. For this reason, we can not reply to your questions until eventually we are suggested the investigation has been finished and the amount owed has actually been compensated to Mageza.”
Following Mpumalanga “won the best” to host the awards for three several years, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for your province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has positive financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and What's more, it talks to your Division’s mandate of marketing social cohesion.”