The Lottery has stopped a grant towards the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed over original illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Regular Music Awards obtained above R16-million from your Lottery.
But the Lottery has withheld payment from the 2023 grant subsequent an investigation.
The NLC has asked the Special Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in a long time the place funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
The dimensions of funding for the yearly two night time occasion is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga governing administration has funded the awards with above R41-million just after it “was awarded the proper” to host the SATMA awards for three decades, beginning while in the 2020/21 monetary yr.
This continues to be Besides Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.two-million grant it in the beginning accepted for an yearly standard audio awards ceremony. The exact same party also been given tens of millions of rand from the Mpumalanga provincial governing administration.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling Practically R16.four-million to your Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers of your annual South African Classic New music Awards (SATMA).
Nevertheless it halted the payment of the 2023 grant immediately after an internal investigation.
GroundUp has exposed substantial corruption within the NLC that occurred until eventually the previous board and management was replaced in 2022. The new NLC leadership is seeking to clear up the corruption from the past.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both of those the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of around R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, can be a director.
Asked if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or another expenses to stage the awards, Goba said: “G4 was commissioned to perform a production of the party and obtained paid for people solutions, like to manage and deliver the main event, roadshows, and so forth. I am the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I'm the a person who have to be compensated for building the notion based upon affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation into the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). It's questioned the SIU to analyze four diverse lottery-funded initiatives that acquired grants among October 2020 and could 2023, as well as the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in a long time exactly where funders other than the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 through the National Heritage Council and just around R62,000 from “SABC Mobile” in 2020 - a similar fiscal calendar year during which the celebration received Nearly R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million with the Mpumalanga Section of Lifestyle, Sporting activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards towards the tune of above R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the proper” to host the SATMA awards for 3 decades, starting within the 2020/21 economic yr.
The Mpumalanga federal government’s funding for SATMA in excess of that period of time was substantially bigger than grants to almost every other organisation for cultural tasks and occasions.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 economical yr prior to ramping up its contribution just after signing the agreement to host the awards in excess of the subsequent a few decades.
The entire funds submitted to your NLC when Mageza used with the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allocated for the particular staging with the celebration. Other line things inside the budget bundled R400,000 for “personnel salaries and Rewards”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December at the Durban Global ตรวจ ล้อ ต เต อ รี่ Conference Centre. Mageza states it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay for the event’s assistance companies.
The SATMA awards, which were 1st held in 2006, are staged more than two nights and it is actually unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants from the NLC, MDCSR together with other funders were being spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not reply to specific concerns from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Alternatively, he explained: “Your inquiries are famous. Even so, we are recommended with the NLC that this make any difference is staying investigated with the SIU. Therefore, we cannot respond to your concerns right until we're encouraged that the investigation has become completed and the amount owed has long been paid to Mageza.”
Soon after Mpumalanga “received the right” to host the awards for three several years, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” to the province.
“Internet hosting the SATMA Awards has beneficial financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and In addition it talks to the Department’s mandate of advertising social cohesion.”