The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA brand superimposed over authentic illustration)
From 2019 to 2022 the South African Regular Tunes Awards gained in excess of R16-million from your Lottery.
Even so the Lottery has withheld payment from the 2023 grant next an investigation.
The NLC has requested the Distinctive Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in yrs exactly where funders besides the NLC also chipped in to assist fund the awards.
The size of funding for that 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 correct” to host the SATMA awards for three a long time, beginning within the 2020/21 monetary year.
This has been Along with Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay for a R1.2-million grant it initially approved for an yearly common new music awards ceremony. Exactly the same occasion also received tens of millions of rand in the Mpumalanga provincial government.
From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded numerous grants totalling Nearly R16.four-million for the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers in the once-a-year South African Standard New music Awards (SATMA).
But it really halted the payment of a 2023 grant just after an internal investigation.
GroundUp has uncovered substantial corruption during the NLC that occurred right until the previous board and management was changed in 2022. The brand new NLC Management is seeking to cleanse up the corruption with the previous.
The NLC’s investigation focused on both the 2023 funding and previously grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of more than R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery resources to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founding father of the SATMA awards, is really a director.
Questioned if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or every other expenses to stage the awards, Goba reported: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a creation of the event and obtained compensated for those expert services, like to deal with and create the leading event, roadshows, and so on. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I'm the a single who needs to be compensated for creating the idea according to affordability and what Mageza decides.”
The NLC has handed a file of its investigation to the Unique Investigating Unit (SIU). It's asked the SIU to research four distinctive lottery-funded jobs that acquired grants between October 2020 and May 2023, in addition to the payment to G4 Brothers.
The NLC has also requested the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in many years where funders aside from the NLC also chipped in that will help fund the awards.
This includes a grant of R400,000 from your Nationwide Heritage Council and just in excess of R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - exactly the same money calendar year during which the party obtained Nearly R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million in the Mpumalanga Division of Culture, Sports activities and Recreation (MDCSR).
MDCSR funded the awards on the tune of about R41-million immediately after it “was awarded the ideal” to host the SATMA awards for 3 several years, beginning in the 2020/21 financial 12 months.
The Mpumalanga govt’s funding for SATMA more than that interval was substantially greater than grants to any other organisation for cultural assignments and occasions.
The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA within the 2019/twenty financial yr prior to ramping up its contribution just after signing the agreement to host the awards more than the next 3 a long time.
The whole finances submitted into the NLC when Mageza used to the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.two-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allocated for the particular staging with the function. Other line things within the spending plan included R400,000 for “staff salaries and Rewards”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”
The awards had been held on fifteen December in the Durban Global ผล หวย ลาว Convention Centre. Mageza suggests it urgently demands the blocked grant to pay for the function’s service suppliers.
The SATMA awards, which had been initially held in 2006, are staged more than two nights and it is unclear how the tens of thousands and thousands in grants in the NLC, MDCSR and various funders had been expended.
Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, didn't reply to specific queries from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.
Alternatively, he claimed: “Your inquiries are famous. On the other hand, we are suggested through the NLC that this make any difference is remaining investigated because of the SIU. As a result, we simply cannot respond to your issues right up until we are recommended which the investigation is concluded and the quantity owed continues to be paid out to Mageza.”
Just after Mpumalanga “won the proper” to host the awards for three several years, the then provincial Lifestyle, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for your province.
“Hosting the SATMA Awards has good financial spinoffs with the Mpumalanga coffers and In addition it talks into the Section’s mandate of selling social cohesion.”