The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA symbol superimposed in excess of original illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common Tunes Awards obtained in excess of R16-million within the Lottery.
Even so the Lottery has withheld payment on the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Distinctive Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs the place funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
The scale of funding for that annual two evening event is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga governing administration has funded the awards with above R41-million right after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for three many years, starting while in the 2020/21 economical calendar year.
This has been Along with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it to begin with permitted for an yearly standard songs awards ceremony. The identical event also been given tens of many rand from your Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded various grants totalling Virtually R16.four-million for the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers of the yearly South African Common Songs Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of a 2023 grant immediately after an inside investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered massive corruption inside the NLC that took place till the former board and administration was changed in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is attempting to thoroughly clean up the corruption on the earlier.
The NLC’s investigation focused on equally the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of more than 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 paid G4 a licencing or any other expenses to phase the awards, Goba reported: “G4 was commissioned to perform a production of the function and bought paid for people companies, like to control and create the main function, roadshows, etc. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I am the a person who should be compensated for producing the principle determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation to your Specific Investigating Unit (SIU). It's got requested the SIU to investigate four distinctive lottery-funded jobs that acquired grants among Oct 2020 and May 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years exactly where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 from the National Heritage Council and just around R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - the identical fiscal 12 months wherein the party received Nearly R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million with the Mpumalanga Section of Lifestyle, Athletics and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards to your tune of around R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for 3 several years, beginning during the 2020/21 money yr.
The Mpumalanga authorities’s funding for SATMA over that period of time was significantly larger than grants to another organisation for cultural tasks and gatherings.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 monetary yr ahead of ramping up its contribution just after signing the settlement to host the awards more than the following 3 yrs.
The full budget submitted towards the NLC when Mageza applied for your disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the actual staging from the event. Other line goods from the funds integrated R400,000 for “staff salaries and Rewards”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December at the Durban Worldwide สลาก กิน Convention Centre. Mageza states it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay the function’s service suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which were being very first held in 2006, are staged around two nights and it really is unclear how the tens of tens of millions in grants from the NLC, MDCSR together with other funders were being spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to specific questions from GroundUp, including the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Instead, he mentioned: “Your queries are mentioned. Nonetheless, we are already suggested from the NLC this subject is staying investigated because of the SIU. That's why, we can not reply to your queries until we've been suggested which the investigation has become completed and the amount owed has been paid to Mageza.”
Just after Mpumalanga “won the appropriate” to host the awards for three a long time, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” for that province.
“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has constructive economic spinoffs to the Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks to the Office’s mandate of endorsing social cohesion.”