By Steve Kretzman
The heads of South Africa’s leading arts festivals have made an urgent call for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC) to provide clarity on funding for arts festivals.
Their call came last week, after contradictory statements by Minister Gayton McKenzie, and festivals being left without DSAC funding — despite them providing thousands of jobs and being both incubators and lifelines for many artists.
In an interview with Netwerk24 journalist Mia Spies last April, McKenzie promised he would support the country’s arts festivals. But when the beneficiaries of the department’s major arts funding programme, the Mzansi Golden Economy, were announced in late July, none of the major, long-standing festivals were included. These include the National Arts Festival, Aardklop, Cape Town Carnival, Innibos, Joy of Jazz, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Suidoosterfees, Vrystaat Kunstefees, and Woordfees.
Instead, McKenzie called last month for a probe into funding for festivals, stating he wanted to see audited statements from all festivals that had received DSAC funding in the past 10 years.
But chairperson of the National Arts Festival (NAF) board, Siphiwo Mahala, said festivals do report on their spending of DSAC funding. Speaking on the 702/CapeTalk Money Show on behalf of a collective of 13 festivals, Mahala said DSAC funding was paid out in tranches.
“You don’t get the final tranche unless you have submitted a comprehensive report together with audited statements, and these festivals that I speak on behalf of have complied with all these requirements, so I’m not sure what the minister is referring to.”
He has said that the NAF which, according to a report by the South African Cultural Observatory, brought R32-million in visitor spending to Makhanda last year, received no funding from DSAC in this, the NAF’s 51st year.
“We’ve tried to engage with the department, we have sent several letters, but we never got a response,” Mahala said.
Mzansi Golden Economy debacle
Severe disruption to the Mzansi Golden Economy grant application process threw festival funding timelines into disarray earlier this year.
The 2024 call for grant applications was made on 8 November, with a submission deadline of 6 December. Then, on 5 December 2024 — one day before the application deadline — the department announced the deadline was extended to 10 January 2025.
Two months later, the department announced changes to the funding criteria, applications now had to be hand-delivered to a designated DSAC office in each province. New applicants were invited to apply, as well as those who had been disqualified due to technical reasons. The department later allowed applications to be submitted online.
However, funding from the “extended call” was only for projects taking place between July 2025 and February 2026. This automatically excluded any festivals or projects that had applied during the initial November 2024 call, and which were scheduled to take place before July. This included the National Arts Festival, which starts in June every year.
The delay in announcing successful applicants also left other festivals in limbo, as festival and event planning requires funding commitments to be in place months ahead of the event.
Allegations of political patronage
While established, audited festivals have not received funding, McKenzie has been accused of directing the Mzansi Golden Economy funds to artists and organisers aligned to his political party, the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
DA MP Leah Potgieter stated she’s received official complaints that funds were used “to prioritise events linked to the Patriotic Alliance”, and she has submitted parliamentary questions on the matter.
A brief scan of the top Mzansi Golden Economy beneficiaries also reveals that some beneficiaries may not stand up to scrutiny. For instance, former kwaito star Arthur Mafokate’s company Roadshow Marketing received R1,8 million – the largest grant amount – to host a concert called “A Night with Legends”. The event has been criticised as featuring very few legends.
Mafokate has been implicated in lottery looting, having had one of his luxury properties seized by the National Prosecuting Authority after allegedly buying it with looted lottery funds.
Another major Mzansi Golden Economy beneficiary is Mazizi Msutu’s company, Amandla Management Services, which received R1 million to host a “cultural diversity festival”. Msutu was named in a PwC investigation which found that Nelson Mandela Bay municipality had irregularly given him R22,4 million to run what The Herald described as “hare-brained record-breaking attempts”.
Many other beneficiaries seem to have received R1 million or more for one-day, once-off events.
McKenzie told City Press that allegations he was using the Mzansi Golden Economy to fund PA-aligned artists were “total madness”.
He failed to respond to journalists’ questions on this and other matters.
Festival leaders unite
It is against this background that Mahala, Nasionale Afrikaanse Teater-Inisiatief CEO Cornelia Faasen, Concerts SA head André le Roux, and National Arts Festival CEO Monica Newton released a united call for deeper collaboration between government, the private sector and the arts community to maintain a healthy creative ecosystem.
Le Roux said they were asking the government to work with them to create a strategy that serves the creative sector, including the potential jobs and economic growth to which festivals contribute. “We need engagement,” said Mahala. “Festivals and artists are key to South Africa’s cultural identity and tourism appeal. The arts are not a luxury – they are vital to nation building, social cohesion and economic development.”
He said a request for a meeting with McKenzie was sent on 23 September. Although the correspondence had been acknowledged, “no date for the meeting has been communicated as yet”.
This article was first published in GroundUp on 23 October.
