The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded yearly SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed over first illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Classic Songs Awards gained around R16-million from the Lottery.
Even so the Lottery has withheld payment of the 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Exclusive Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years the place funders apart from the NLC also chipped in that can help fund the awards.
The scale of funding for your once-a-year two evening event is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with around R41-million soon after it “was awarded the correct” to host the SATMA awards for three years, starting in the 2020/21 money yr.
This has been In combination with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it to begin with accredited for an annual regular songs awards ceremony. A similar occasion also acquired tens of millions of rand from the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded several grants totalling Practically R16.4-million to the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers in the yearly South African Classic Audio Awards (SATMA).
But it surely halted the payment of a 2023 grant just after an inside investigation.
GroundUp has exposed massive corruption in the NLC that happened till the prior board and administration was replaced in 2022. The new NLC Management is trying to thoroughly clean up the corruption of the previous.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of above R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery money to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is usually a director.
Requested if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or every other fees to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to carry out a manufacture of the celebration and got paid out for people expert services, like to manage and make the primary function, roadshows, etcetera. I'm the founder of the SATMA Awards; I am the one particular who must be compensated for making the principle according to affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to the Particular Investigating Unit (SIU). It has questioned the SIU to research four various lottery-funded projects that been given grants involving October 2020 and should 2023, together with the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also asked the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades wherever funders apart from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 within the National Heritage Council and just in excess of R62,000 from “SABC Mobile” in 2020 - precisely the same financial yr through which the event received Virtually R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million through the Mpumalanga Section of Tradition, Sports activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards towards the tune of above R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, starting while in the 2020/21 economic yr.
The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA about that period of time was substantially larger than grants to every other organisation for cultural initiatives and occasions.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA while in the 2019/twenty monetary yr right before ramping up its contribution immediately after signing the settlement to host the awards around another a few decades.
The total spending budget submitted into the NLC when Mageza applied to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging in the event. Other line items during the finances provided R400,000 for “staff salaries and Gains”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December in the Durban Global ตรวจ สลาก Conference Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay the party’s provider providers.
The SATMA awards, which were being 1st held in 2006, are staged more than two evenings and it is unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants from your NLC, MDCSR and other funders have been invested.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to unique questions from GroundUp, such as the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As an alternative, he explained: “Your inquiries are famous. Even so, we are recommended through the NLC this make any difference is currently being investigated through the SIU. Therefore, we simply cannot respond to your questions until eventually we're encouraged that the investigation has been done and the amount owed has become compensated to Mageza.”
Soon after Mpumalanga “received the proper” to host the awards for three yrs, the then provincial Culture, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for your province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has constructive economic spinoffs to the Mpumalanga coffers and In addition it talks into the Office’s mandate of promoting social cohesion.”