The Lottery has stopped a grant into the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA logo superimposed above first illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common New music Awards been given about R16-million through the Lottery.
Although the Lottery has withheld payment on the 2023 grant adhering to an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Specific Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs in which funders in addition to the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.
The dimensions of funding for your yearly two evening party is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga govt has funded the awards with around R41-million right after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 years, beginning in the 2020/21 monetary yr.
This has become In combination with Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it in the beginning authorised for an yearly conventional new music awards ceremony. The exact same occasion also been given tens of an incredible number of rand through the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling Nearly R16.4-million on the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers of the annual South African Standard Tunes Awards (SATMA).
But it halted the payment of the 2023 grant after an internal investigation.
GroundUp has exposed enormous corruption while in the NLC that passed off right until the former board and administration was replaced in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is attempting to clean up up the corruption with the past.
The NLC’s investigation centered on equally the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of over R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery cash to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is usually a director.
Requested if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or some other fees to stage the awards, Goba claimed: “G4 was commissioned to complete a manufacture of the party and received paid out for the people solutions, like to deal with and make the key celebration, roadshows, etcetera. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I'm the a person who should be compensated for making the notion determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to the Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU). It's got asked the SIU to analyze four different lottery-funded jobs that received grants between Oct 2020 and May 2023, along with the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in many years where by funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
This features a grant of R400,000 in the Nationwide Heritage Council and just more than R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - the identical monetary 12 months wherein the event acquired Pretty much R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million in the Mpumalanga Division of Lifestyle, Athletics and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards into the tune of around R41-million right after it “was awarded the proper” to host the SATMA awards for 3 a long time, beginning in the 2020/21 economical yr.
The Mpumalanga government’s funding for SATMA in excess of that time period was significantly greater than grants to almost every other organisation for cultural tasks and functions.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 monetary 12 months right before ramping up its contribution soon after signing the arrangement to host the awards in excess of the subsequent 3 several years.
The overall funds submitted for the NLC when Mageza utilized to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the particular staging with the function. Other line products in the spending plan provided R400,000 for “personnel salaries and Advantages”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards ended up held on 15 December within the Durban Worldwide หุ้น ชอง 9 Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s services vendors.
The SATMA awards, which have been first held in 2006, are staged about two nights and it truly is unclear how the tens of tens of millions in grants from your NLC, MDCSR and various funders had been invested.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to precise questions from GroundUp, including the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Instead, he said: “Your questions are noted. However, we are actually recommended with the NLC that this make any difference is currently being investigated because of the SIU. That's why, we can't reply to your concerns right until we are recommended which the investigation is concluded and the quantity owed continues to be paid to Mageza.”
Soon after Mpumalanga “gained the appropriate” to host the awards for 3 decades, the then provincial Society, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” to the province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has good financial spinoffs with the Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks into the Section’s mandate of selling social cohesion.”