The Lottery has stopped a grant to your lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA brand superimposed over initial illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Conventional Audio Awards obtained more than R16-million from the Lottery.
However the Lottery has withheld payment from the 2023 grant subsequent an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Exclusive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs exactly where funders other than the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.
The dimensions of funding for the yearly two evening party is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga govt has funded the awards with over R41-million soon after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for 3 decades, commencing in the 2020/21 financial year.
This has been As well as Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.2-million grant it in the beginning authorised for an yearly conventional music awards ceremony. A similar celebration also obtained tens of millions of rand with the Mpumalanga provincial govt.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded numerous grants totalling Pretty much R16.4-million on the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers of the annual South African Standard Audio Awards (SATMA).
But it halted the payment of a 2023 grant right after an interior investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered massive corruption within the NLC that came about until eventually the preceding board and management was changed in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is attempting to clean up up the corruption with the previous.
The NLC’s investigation centered on both equally the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of above R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery funds to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, is really a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or another costs to phase the awards, Goba mentioned: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a production of the function and obtained paid for the people solutions, like to control and produce the primary occasion, roadshows, and so forth. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I'm the one who must be compensated for developing the idea based upon affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation on the Particular Investigating Unit (SIU). It's got requested the SIU to analyze 4 various lottery-funded tasks that received grants involving October 2020 and could 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also questioned the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to help 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 - the same economic 12 months in which the function gained Pretty much R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million from the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards towards the tune of above R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the best” to host the SATMA awards for three years, commencing inside the 2020/21 monetary calendar year.
The Mpumalanga federal government’s funding for SATMA more than that interval was considerably larger than grants to every other organisation for cultural jobs and functions.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA inside the 2019/twenty economical year right before ramping up its contribution right after signing the settlement to host the awards around the next three a long time.
The full budget submitted towards the NLC when Mageza applied for the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the particular staging of the event. Other line items during the finances incorporated R400,000 for “staff salaries and Advantages”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December on the Durban Intercontinental ตรวจ Conference Centre. Mageza states it urgently requirements the blocked grant to pay for the occasion’s company companies.
The SATMA awards, which were being 1st held in 2006, are staged over two nights and it is actually unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants within the NLC, MDCSR and also other funders were being spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to distinct issues from GroundUp, such as the price of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
As a substitute, he reported: “Your thoughts are pointed out. Having said that, we are recommended because of the NLC that this make a difference is remaining investigated because of the SIU. That's why, we can't reply to your queries till we've been advised the investigation has been concluded and the amount owed has become compensated to Mageza.”
Following Mpumalanga “won the best” to host the awards for 3 decades, the then provincial Culture, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” for that province.
“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has favourable financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks for the Department’s mandate of advertising social cohesion.”