Madiba opera ends abruptly
Madiba the African Opera performances have stopped after only three performances at the South Africa State Theatre in the city centre.
The collapse of Madiba: the African Opera after only three performances at the State Theatre in the city centre has caused widespread dismay. The opera tells the life story of the late South African icon Nelson Mandela – from early childhood until his recent passing.
The organisers laid the blame for the failure of the production at the door of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). The fund has vehemently denied the charge.
Musical director of the production, Kutlwano Masote, said: “The current issues arose during contract negotiations between the beneficiaries and the NLDTF from a deviation after R11 million, which was allegedly approved by the NLDTF at the end of April 2014. Two weeks later, Opera South Africa was informed that the amount had been reduced to R2.86m without any explanation of why the funding had been so drastically cut. Opera South Africa immediately made appeals to the NLDTF to reconsider awarding the original grant, as rehearsals had already started and suppliers were engaged.”
He said that under the circumstances, they made the financially responsible decision of shortening the current run of the production until they received further funding. “We initially requested R12m for the national tour. We were promised R11m by our liaison at the NLDTF, but we only received R2.86m on Monday evening after the show.”
He added that since the production company had only received the reduced funding for the Pretoria run from the NLDTF, they would begin making payments to all who worked on the Pretoria production.
The National Lotteries Board (NLB) confirmed that on Monday a grant of R2.86m was paid to the African Cultural Organisation of South Africa (Acosa), the organisers of the opera. Spokesperson for the NLB, Sershan Naidoo, said they finalised the grant on 21 May, two days before the premiere of the opera.
“The NLB is concerned that there are media reports that the opera had to be cancelled because of non-payment of the grant by the NLB. The NLB had to follow its routine compliance and verification processes before transferring the funds to Acosa. An email was sent to the organisers on Monday confirming that payment would be made on that very same day. The payment was made within three working days of receiving the signed grant agreement,” she said.
Reports state that Unathi Mtirara, the producer of the opera and chief executive of Opera South Africa, blamed the cancellation on non-payment by the NLB. “We took the decision to cancel this week’s show on Thursday last week because we were not sure we would receive the payment. They only paid us on Monday,” he reportedly said.
