Lottery Blocks Payment to Lavishly Funded Music Event

The Lottery has stopped a grant to the lavishly funded annual SATMA awards.

• From 2019 to 2022 the South African Traditional Music Awards received over R16-million from the Lottery.
• But the Lottery has withheld payment of the 2023 grant following an investigation.
• The NLC has asked the Special Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in years where funders other than the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.
• The scale of funding for the annual two night event is incredible.
• The Mpumalanga government has funded the awards with over R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for three years, beginning in the 2020/21 financial year.
• This has been in addition to Lottery funding.

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.2-million grant it initially approved for an annual traditional music awards ceremony. The same event also received tens of millions of rand from the Mpumalanga provincial government.

From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded several grants totalling almost R16.4-million to the Mageza Heritage Foundation, the organisers of the annual South African Traditional Music Awards (SATMA).

But it halted the payment of a 2023 grant after an internal investigation.

GroundUp has exposed massive corruption in the NLC that took place until the previous board and management was replaced in 2022. The new NLC leadership is attempting to clean up the corruption of the past.

The NLC’s investigation focused on both the 2023 funding and earlier grants awarded to Mageza to stage the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of over R718,000, allegedly paid from Lottery funds to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, is a director.

Asked if Mageza paid G4 a licencing or any other fees to stage the awards, Goba said: “G4 was commissioned to do a production of the event and got paid for those services, like to manage and produce the main event, roadshows, etc. I am the founder of the SATMA Awards; I am the one who must be compensated for creating the concept based on affordability and what Mageza decides.”

The NLC has handed a dossier of its investigation to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). It has asked the SIU to investigate four different lottery-funded projects that received grants between October 2020 and May 2023, as well as the payment to G4 Brothers.

The NLC has also asked the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in years where funders other than the NLC also chipped in to help fund the awards.

This includes a grant of R400,000 from the National Heritage Council and just over R62,000 from “SABC Mobile” in 2020 – the same financial year in which the event received almost R2.6-million in lottery funding and R13.5-million from the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).

MDCSR funded the awards to the tune of over R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for three years, beginning in the 2020/21 financial year.

The Mpumalanga government’s funding for SATMA over that period was substantially higher than grants to any other organisation for cultural projects and events.

The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 financial year before ramping up its contribution after signing the agreement to host the awards over the next three years.

The total budget submitted to the NLC when Mageza applied for the disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of this, only R500,000 was allocated for the actual staging of the event. Other line items in the budget included R400,000 for “personnel salaries and benefits”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “travel.”

The awards were held on 15 December at the Durban International Convention Centre. Mageza says it urgently needs the blocked grant to pay the event’s service providers.

The SATMA awards, which were first held in 2006, are staged over two nights and it is unclear how the tens of millions in grants from the NLC, MDCSR and other funders were spent.

Desmond Msomi, the chairman of Mageza, did not respond to specific questions from GroundUp, including the cost of staging a SATMA awards ceremony.

Instead, he said: “Your questions are noted. However, we have been advised by the NLC that this matter is being investigated by the SIU. Hence, we cannot respond to your questions until we are advised that the investigation has been completed and the amount owed has been paid to Mageza.”

After Mpumalanga “won the right” to host the awards for three years, the then provincial Culture, Sport and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, described it as “a boon” for the province.

“Hosting the SATMA Awards has positive economic spinoffs for the Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks to the Department’s mandate of promoting social cohesion.”

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