Previous board to blame for relief funds delay, says arts council

The National Arts Council (NAC) has blamed its previous board for failing thousands of artists who have desperately waited for Covid-19 relief funds over the last year to no avail. The council set up a R300 million funding facility last year to provide relief for projects which were cancelled because of lockdown restrictions and those who wish to organise projects that will employ out-of-work artists. By the end of last year, the budget for the relief roll-out had doubled to over R600 million promised to just 1 374 successful applicants. But on the ground, performers, creators and craftsmen languished as…

The National Arts Council (NAC) has blamed its previous board for failing thousands of artists who have desperately waited for Covid-19 relief funds over the last year to no avail.

The council set up a R300 million funding facility last year to provide relief for projects which were cancelled because of lockdown restrictions and those who wish to organise projects that will employ out-of-work artists.

By the end of last year, the budget for the relief roll-out had doubled to over R600 million promised to just 1 374 successful applicants.

But on the ground, performers, creators and craftsmen languished as the process was stalled with the coming of the new council members in January.

According to Dr Sipho Sithole, one of the new council members, the board had to halt the process when they realised the budget had inexplicably doubled and some applicants had been funded for more than one project.

This didn’t mean, he said, that the NAC was unable to disburse the funds.

“What the NAC did [stalling the distribution] was in order to correct and address what we perceived to be imbalances, unfairness and an uneven plane,” said Sithole.

“The previous board had already adjudicated and approved all successful applicants by 30 December and there were 1 374 of them. We then discovered when we came in, that they had approved more applicants than the money they had.”

Sithole said the original budget soared by an additional R311 million.

“When they realised they had gone over budget, they decided to only announce the success of 600 applications and left out the 751. When we asked them how they came to that decision they gave us all sorts of reasons that were not acceptable,” he said.

The NAC has been the target of a nationwide campaign by performing artists to account for the elusive funds as the months roll by without hope.

Yesterday, artists and members of the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party picketed outside the NAC’s offices in Newtown where a group of artists have been staging a sit-in for the past 21 days, vowing to stay until the relief funds are released.

simnikiweh@citizen.co.za