The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA emblem superimposed above first illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Common Tunes Awards acquired more than R16-million from the Lottery.
But the Lottery has withheld payment with the 2023 grant subsequent an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Unique Investigating Device to probe alleged “double dipping” in years the place funders in addition to the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
The size of funding with the once-a-year two night time event is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga federal government has funded the awards with about R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for three years, commencing during the 2020/21 money 12 months.
This has become Together with Lottery funding.
The National Lotteries Fee (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it originally authorized for an once-a-year standard new music awards ceremony. The exact same occasion also gained tens of countless rand with the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling almost R16.4-million towards the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers on the yearly South African Regular Tunes Awards (SATMA).
But it halted the payment of the 2023 grant just after an interior investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered substantial corruption while in the NLC that occurred until finally the prior board and administration was replaced in 2022. The brand new NLC leadership is attempting to cleanse up the corruption in the earlier.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both of those the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of more than R718,000, allegedly paid out from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is often a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or some other service fees to phase the awards, Goba stated: “G4 was commissioned to perform a creation of the party and bought compensated for those solutions, like to handle and generate the key occasion, 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 in between October 2020 and should 2023, in addition to 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 features a grant of R400,000 through the Nationwide Heritage Council and just in excess of R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - the exact same money 12 months during which the occasion received almost R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million within the Mpumalanga Section of Culture, Sporting activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards on the tune of over R41-million just after it “was awarded the best” to host the SATMA awards for 3 a long time, starting in the 2020/21 fiscal calendar year.
The Mpumalanga authorities’s funding for SATMA in excess of that interval was significantly higher than grants to some other organisation for cultural assignments and gatherings.
The MDSCR gave R3.five-million to SATMA from the 2019/twenty fiscal yr ahead of ramping up its contribution soon after signing the arrangement to host the awards more than another 3 a long time.
The entire budget submitted to your NLC when Mageza applied with the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allocated for the actual staging of the function. Other line items while in the budget provided R400,000 for “staff salaries and Advantages”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “journey.”
The awards ended up held on fifteen December at the Durban International หวย วัน นี้ Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently wants the blocked grant to pay for the event’s provider vendors.
The SATMA awards, which had been initially held in 2006, are staged over two nights and it really is unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants within the NLC, MDCSR along with other funders have been put in.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to particular concerns from GroundUp, including the expense of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
In its place, he reported: “Your thoughts are famous. Even so, we have already been advised via the NLC that this make any difference is currently being investigated from the SIU. As a result, we are not able to reply to your concerns until eventually we are suggested the investigation has been finished and the amount owed has actually been compensated to Mageza.”
After Mpumalanga “won the correct” to host the awards for three a long time, the then provincial Tradition, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” with the province.
“Web hosting the SATMA Awards has beneficial financial spinoffs for your Mpumalanga coffers and In addition, it talks towards the Department’s mandate of endorsing social cohesion.”