‘Irregularities’ in R300-million artists’ employment programme delay pay-outs

An ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities regarding the administration of an R300-million presidential programme has resulted in many artists and performers struggling to support their families.

“Due to the irregularities, pay-outs were delayed and this has left many people suffering,” said actor, writer and producer Lizz Meiring, who hosts several shows in Pretoria.

Since 3 March, several artists have staged a sit-in outside the offices of the National Arts Council, which administers the presidential employment stimulus programme (PESP), in Johannesburg.

Meiring has for the past two weeks raised funds with other stakeholders to cook food for the artists protesting outside the council offices.

“They want answers to what has happened to the money,” she said.

“It was supposed to be paid out from December but nothing happened. The likes of Sibongile Mngoma, a renowned opera singer, are bearing the brunt to raise awareness on this. We have lost a colleague through this and we just want the government to understand the severity of our challenges and pay-out money so that artists can work.”

One of the artists, Given Sithole, said the council breached contracts already signed with some applicants, cutting most of the approved applicants’ budgets by 70 per cent or more without consulting the affected applicants.

Another artist Yuhl Headman said artists and performers suffered financially due to events and shows cancelled.

“The government turned a blind eye on this.

“Due to the Covid-19, most artists were unable to get any income for more than 12 months now. This while employees of the department and its agencies were paid during the lockdown.”

National Arts Council spokesperson Tshepo Mashiane said the council has launched an investigation into the alleged irregularities into the grant programme after they were flagged by an adjudication panellist of the programme earlier this year.

On cutting budgets and irregularities, Mashiane said it was found that some applicants were approved larger amounts of money than what they had applied for, which resulted in the council halting payments.

“There were applicants who applied for R385 000, but you would see that they would approve R1-million. We then corrected these and sent the applicants grant notifications that they were to receive the amounts for which they applied for. That is where the cuts come from,” he said.

Mashiane said they also found more than 700 applicants that qualified for funding were not allocated money, but funding was only allocated to 618 candidates.

“Resolving this was important to ensure that all deserving applicants get funding. Legally we were obligated to pay-out to all qualified applicants.”

Mashiane said there was no money paid-out to flagged irregular contracts.

The new council which took office earlier this year suspended the CEO and CFO pending an investigation into the management of the programme.

Mashiane said about 1 215 applicants, consisting of entities and individuals were to benefit from the R285-million grant as R15-million was deviated to the administration process.

“The payments are in the process right now. We are appealing to individuals and organisations that have not signed the grant offers to do so.”