Cape Town - Resignations, short-term stints and media leaks have plagued the National Arts Council (NAC) and MPs are considering placing the agency under administration.
The problems besetting the NAC overshadowed the issue of artists’ funding in a recent sports, arts and culture portfolio committee meeting.
As a Sports, Arts and Culture Department agency, the NAC’s mandate is to, among other things, allocate funding to artists, cultural institutions and NGOs to disseminate literature, history and storytelling.
This is done through the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (Pesp).
Acting CEO Julie Diphofa told arts and culture portfolio committee members that the Pesp call for funding was released on June 20 and closed on July 29, attracting 9 455 applications through the grant management system.
She said the department had a R180 million budget for the funding programme.
Diphofa did not say how many applicants had been rejected.
DA MP Tsepo Mhlongo sponsored a motion in the committee to put the troubled NAC under administration. Arts and Culture committee chairperson Nomvuzo Dlulane said she would support the motion.
Arts and Culture Department acting director-general Vusumuzi Ndima said two council members representing the Western Cape and Gauteng had resigned, while the third representative from the Eastern Cape was fired.
He said Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa had made two ministerial appointments on the council. He appointed Marion Mbina-Mthembu and Linda Mvanana, but Mbina-Mthembu also resigned as interim CEO.
NAC chairperson Celenhle Dlamini said Mvanana resigned because she was appointed to a senior role that prevented her from fulfilling her NAC duties and Mbina-Mthembu resigned as she planned to take up the CEO position when it became available. No explanation was given for Tshepo Mashiane’s and Phumzile Zitumane’s resignations.
She said Mashiane’s appointment process had been “unfair and not transparent” and she was appointed without the knowledge of all council members.
She said Mbina-Mthembu, who was already a council member, was appointed as interim CEO in May 2021 for two weeks. She suspended her role in the council to take up the chief executive role. The NAC decided to end her employment last month.
Dlamini said media leaks occurred after the departures of Mbina-Mthembu and Mashiane.
Dlamini said Bernadette Muthien had been appointed on the council to represent the Western Cape.
Dlulane said: “I must just indicate that we’re here today because the NAC from inception has not been doing well … Something is not well with the NAC. We want to see you do well.”
She said the NAC often appeared before the committee without preparing notes and that agency officials had failed to present minutes of their meetings.
EFF MP Ringo Madlingozi asked why R65m in NAC money was withheld by the South African Reserve Bank, and why this money was not used to pay artists. But Dlamini said these funds were accounted for.