The Lottery has stopped a grant for the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA brand superimposed in excess of first illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common Tunes Awards obtained over R16-million through the Lottery.
However the Lottery has withheld payment on the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has questioned the Exclusive Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades exactly where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.
The size of funding for your once-a-year two night occasion is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga federal government has funded the awards with above R41-million soon after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for three years, starting in the 2020/21 financial 12 months.
This has become Together with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.2-million grant it at first permitted for an yearly classic audio awards ceremony. The exact same function also obtained tens of millions of rand within the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded quite a few grants totalling Virtually R16.four-million to the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers with the once-a-year South African Regular Music Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of the 2023 grant after an inner investigation.
GroundUp has exposed large corruption during the NLC that took place till the earlier board and management was replaced in 2022. The new NLC leadership is trying to clear up the corruption in the past.
The NLC’s investigation centered on both of those the 2023 funding and before grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of above R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid out G4 a licencing or any other service fees to stage the awards, Goba reported: “G4 was commissioned to accomplish a creation of the event and acquired compensated for those products and services, like to manage and make the leading party, roadshows, etc. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I'm the just one who needs to be compensated for creating the concept dependant on affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation on the Particular Investigating Device (SIU). It has requested the SIU to investigate 4 distinct lottery-funded projects that acquired grants among Oct 2020 and May 2023, as well as the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also asked the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs exactly where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 in the Nationwide Heritage Council and just in excess of R62,000 from “SABC Cell” in 2020 - the same monetary yr where the celebration gained Just about R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million through the Mpumalanga Section of Tradition, Athletics and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards into the tune of about R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, beginning in the 2020/21 economical year.
The Mpumalanga govt’s funding for SATMA above that period was considerably bigger than grants to every other organisation for cultural assignments and situations.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA inside the 2019/twenty fiscal 12 months right before ramping up its contribution after signing the agreement to host the awards over the following three years.
The full spending plan submitted to your NLC when Mageza utilized for your disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging of your celebration. Other line things within the budget involved R400,000 for “staff salaries and Positive aspects”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”
The awards had been held on 15 December at the Durban Global ตรวจ ล้อ ต เต อ รี่ Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s services suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which were initially held in 2006, are staged over two nights and it can be unclear how the tens of tens of millions in grants from your NLC, MDCSR and various funders were spent.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not reply to unique concerns from GroundUp, including the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Instead, he stated: “Your questions are noted. Having said that, we are actually recommended through the NLC that this make any difference is becoming investigated through the SIU. Therefore, we cannot respond to your questions until eventually we are recommended which the investigation has become done and the amount owed has become paid out to Mageza.”
After Mpumalanga “won the best” to host the awards for three a long time, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for your province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has optimistic economic spinoffs for the Mpumalanga coffers and In addition, it talks for the Department’s mandate of advertising social cohesion.”