Arts Festivals Call For Clarity on Funding

• Erratic funding by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has left established arts festivals scrambling.
• Arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie first stated his support for the festivals, but then announced he wanted a probe into their funding.
• None of the major, long-standing festivals, including the National Arts Festival, Open Book, and Woordfees, received funding from the department’s Mzansi Golden Economy grant disbursement programme this past year.
• Questions have been submitted to Parliament after McKenzie was accused of using Mzansi Golden Economy funds to favour artists aligned to his political party.

The heads of South Africa’s leading arts festivals made an urgent call on Tuesday from the Stellenbosch Woordfees for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC) to provide clarity on funding for arts festivals.

Their call comes after contradictory statements by Minister Gayton McKenzie, and festivals being left without DSAC funding despite them providing thousands of jobs and being both incubators and lifelines for many artists.

In April, in an interview with Netwerk24 journalist Mia Spies, McKenzie promised he would support the country’s arts festivals. But when the beneficiaries of the department’s major arts funding programme, the Mzansi Golden Economy, were announced in late July, none of the major, long-standing festivals were included. These include Aardklop, Cape Town Carnival, Innibos, Joy of Jazz, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, National Arts Festival, Suidoosterfees, Vrystaat Kunstefees, and Woordfees.

Instead, McKenzie last month called for a probe into funding for festivals, stating he wanted to see audited statements from all festivals that had received DSAC funding in the past ten years.

But chairperson of the National Arts Festival (NAF) board, Siphiwo Mahala, said festivals do report on their spending of DSAC funding. Speaking on the 702/CapeTalk Money Show on behalf of a collective of 13 festivals, Mahala said DSAC funding was paid out in tranches.

“You don’t get the final tranche unless you have submitted a comprehensive report together with audited statements, and these festivals that I speak on behalf of have complied with all these requirements, so I’m not sure what the minister is referring to.”

He said this year the NAF, which brought R32-million in visitor spending to the impoverished city of Makhanda last year, according to a report by the South African Cultural Observatory, received no funding from DSAC in this, its 51st year.

“We’ve tried to engage with the department, we have sent several letters, but we never got a response.”

Mzansi Golden Economy debacle

There has been severe disruption to the Mzansi Golden Economy grant application process, which has thrown festival funding timelines into disarray.

The 2024 call for grant applications was made on 8 November, with a submission deadline of 6 December. Applications had to be submitted via www.eservices.gov.za, with hand-delivered or emailed applications not accepted.

Then, on 5 December 2024, one day before the application deadline, the department announced the deadline was extended to 10 January 2025.

Two months after submissions had been made, the department announced the funding call had been “broadened in scope and access”. Along with changes to the funding criteria, applications now had to be hand-delivered to a designated DSAC office in each province. New applicants were invited to apply, as well as those who had been disqualified due to technical reasons. The department later allowed for applications to be submitted online.

However, funding from the “extended call” was only for projects taking place between July 2025 and February 2026. This automatically excluded any festivals or projects that had applied during the initial November 2024 call, which were scheduled to take place before July. This included the National Arts Festival, which starts every year in June.

The delay in announcing successful applicants also left other festivals in limbo, as festival and event planning requires funding commitments to be in place months ahead of the event.

The highly popular Open Book festival in Cape Town, which takes place over three days in September, applied for Mzansi Golden Economy funding, but did not receive it this year despite the department having awarded it flagship status in 2019. After the covid pandemic, it received funding from 2022 to 2024.

Two months prior to their three-day festival, with no word on their applications from the Western Cape provincial government or the Mzansi Golden Economy, Open Book coordinator Frankie Murrey said they made the decision to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign made it clear that the results of their funding applications had not yet been released, so they did not know whether they would be successful. However, a decision needed to be made as they could wait no longer; authors needed to be booked, the programme finalised, flights and accommodation booked, and deposits paid. The crowdfunding campaign was successful, as was their application to the provincial government, which provided R55,000.

Murrey said delays within the Mzansi Golden Economy process meant even if they had ultimately been successful, they would still have had to launch the crowdfunding campaign, due to the delay in the beneficiary announcement.

While the crowdfunding saw an outpouring of public support, Open Book director Mervyn Sloman stated it was an emergency intervention and not a sustainable model. Without at least baseline funding from the department, Open Book, which also hosts a youth festival and workshops at other times of the year, would have to face the possibility of coming to an end after 14 years of existence.

Allegations of political patronage

While established, audited festivals have not received funding, McKenzie has been accused of directing the Mzansi Golden Economy funds to artists and organisers aligned to his political party, the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

DA MP Leah Potgieter stated she’s received official complaints that funds were used “to prioritise events linked to the Patriotic Alliance”, and she has submitted parliamentary questions on the matter.

A brief scan of the top Mzansi Golden Economy beneficiaries also reveals that some beneficiaries may not stand up to scrutiny. Former kwaito star Arthur Mafokate’s company Roadshow Marketing received R1.8-million – the largest grant amount – to host a concert called “A Night with Legends”. The event has been criticised as featuring very few legends.

Mafokate has been implicated in lottery looting, having had one of his luxury properties seized by the National Prosecuting Authority after allegedly buying it with looted lottery funds.

Another major Mzansi Golden Economy beneficiary is Mazizi Msutu’s company, Amandla Management Services, which received R1-million to host a “cultural diversity festival”. Msutu was named in a PwC investigation, which found the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality had irregularly given him R22.4-million to run what The Herald described as “hare-brained record-breaking attempts”.

Many other beneficiaries seem to have received R1-million or more for one-day, once-off events.

McKenzie told the City Press that allegations he was using the Mzansi Golden Economy to fund PA-aligned artists were “total madness”.

He failed to respond to GroundUp’s questions on this and other matters.

Festival leaders unite

It is against this background that Mahala, Nasionale Afrikaanse Teater-Inisiatief CEO Cornelia Faasen, Concerts SA head André le Roux, and National Arts Festival CEO Monica Newton on Tuesday released a united call for deeper collaboration between government, the private sector and the arts community to maintain a healthy creative ecosystem.

Le Roux said they were asking the government to work with them to create a strategy that serves the creative sector, including the potential jobs and economic growth to which festivals contribute.

“We’re experienced both in policy and bureaucracy, many of us having worked in government, and in our areas of creative development,” said Le Roux.

“We need engagement,” said Mahala. “Festivals and artists are key to South Africa’s cultural identity and tourism appeal. The arts are not a luxury – they are vital to nation building, social cohesion and economic development.”

He said a request for a meeting with McKenzie was sent on 23 September. Although the correspondence had been acknowledged, “no date for the meeting has been communicated as yet”.

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