Lottery blocks payment to lavishly funded music event

The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded yearly SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA symbol superimposed more than authentic illustration)

From 2019 to 2022 the South African Standard Audio Awards obtained over R16-million from the Lottery.
However the Lottery has withheld payment of the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has asked the Exclusive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in several years where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
The scale of funding for your yearly two evening celebration is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with more than R41-million soon after it “was awarded the appropriate” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, starting while in the 2020/21 fiscal yr.
This is Together with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it to begin with accredited for an annual regular songs awards ceremony. The same celebration also obtained tens of a lot of rand in the Mpumalanga provincial govt.

From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded several grants totalling Virtually R16.4-million to your Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers of your once-a-year South African Traditional Music Awards (SATMA).

Nevertheless it halted the payment of a 2023 grant right after an inner investigation.

GroundUp has exposed massive corruption in the NLC that befell right until the past board and management was changed in 2022. The new NLC Management is trying to clean up the corruption with the past.

The NLC’s investigation centered on the two the 2023 funding and before grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of in excess of R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery money to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, is a director.

Requested if Mageza paid out G4 a licencing or another charges to stage the awards, Goba explained: “G4 was commissioned to carry out a production of the event and received paid for all those companies, like to control and generate the principle function, roadshows, and so on. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the 1 who must be compensated for building the strategy determined by affordability and what Mageza decides.”

The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to your Particular Investigating Device (SIU). It has requested the SIU to analyze four unique lottery-funded tasks that gained grants between October 2020 and should 2023, along with the payment to G4 Brothers.

The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs where funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.

This includes a grant of R400,000 through the Nationwide Heritage Council and just in excess of R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - precisely the same fiscal yr by which the event been given Pretty much R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million with the Mpumalanga Division of Culture, Athletics and Recreation (MDCSR).

MDCSR funded the awards for the tune of around R41-million soon after it “was awarded the proper” to host the SATMA awards for 3 years, beginning from the 2020/21 monetary yr.

The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA more than that time period was considerably increased than grants to another organisation for cultural jobs and events.

The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA in the 2019/twenty economical calendar year in advance of ramping up its contribution immediately after signing the arrangement to host the awards above the next a few several years.

The entire budget submitted into the NLC when Mageza utilized with the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the actual staging of your function. Other line items while in the budget provided R400,000 for “staff salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “journey.”

The awards ended up held on fifteen December within the Durban International หวย หุ้น ช่อง 9 วัน นี้ Conference Centre. Mageza states it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay the celebration’s services suppliers.

The SATMA awards, which were being very first held in 2006, are staged about two evenings and it is unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants with the NLC, MDCSR and other funders were invested.

Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not reply to unique thoughts from GroundUp, such as the price of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.

Alternatively, he explained: “Your queries are mentioned. However, we have been recommended from the NLC this make a difference is being investigated because of the SIU. Therefore, we simply cannot respond to your inquiries until we're recommended which the investigation is concluded and the quantity owed has long been compensated to Mageza.”

Following Mpumalanga “won the correct” to host the awards for three a long time, the then provincial Tradition, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” with the province.

“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has beneficial economic spinoffs for your Mpumalanga coffers and In addition, it talks towards the Office’s mandate of advertising and marketing social cohesion.”

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