Youth forum takes department to court

LIMPOPO – The Limpopo Arts and Culture Youth Forum is considering taking the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to court for allegedly stealing the concept of the Mapungubwe build-up programme.
The Forum’s President, Romeo Ramuada says the forum met with the department on 19 November last year to discuss their unhappiness with how the department has handled the Mapungubwe programme.
“We handed them a proposal to allow us to stage the build-up programme, and former MEC, Nandi Ndalane agreed to have us lead it this year.”
Their proposal was thus for smaller events to be held across five districts in the province prior to the festival, as is the case presently.
Ramuada claims the department has included the build-up project in this year’s programme without involving the forum.
This year, a total of R41 million was allocated for the festival, which is to be held in December.
According to Ramuada, the forum requested R600 000 to fund their programme, but they were turned down.
“They wanted to allocate only R200 000 for us, which we declined. How are they able to pay an international artist like Joe Thomas R1,6 million while local artists don’t benefit on the same scale?” he asked.
Quotes from local artists were turned down, Ramuada said, and they were paid R10 000 each, which led to the protest march last year.
He explained why they have involved the court in the matter.
“We want the court to grant us permission to conduct the Mapungubwe build-up programme ourselves as the owner of the concept. The department should fund our concept and stop competing against us.”
“The Mapungubwe Arts Festival build-up project will have both daytime and evening performances which will be hosted in venues in townships and rural areas. This will help to create more opportunities for artists in these areas to contribute to the Mapungubwe Arts Festival’s audience development.
Approached for comment, MEC Onicca Moloi stated Ramuad never requested a meeting to discuss the issue and has never visited her at her office.
The department has also not received any letter from them on the matter.
She also criticised Ramuada for taking the issue to social media instead of discussing the matter with the department. “If Ramuada wants to take the department to court, let him,” she concluded.
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