Paintings, sketches and other artworks depicting artists’ struggles line the walls on the third floor of the National Arts Council (NAC) offices in Newtown, Johannesburg.
This is where dancers, musicians, actors and other artists have been staging a sit-in since March 1.
On Monday, after weeks of knocking on the department of sport, arts and culture’s door, minister Nathi Mthethwa, during a briefing, finally opened it — a little.
He apologised to the sector for how the council has handled the R300m Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme meant to benefit artists hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mthethwa has also instituted a forensic investigation into problems at the NAC and how the amount was distributed.
He placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the council’s top management and board, saying they had dropped the ball and embarrassed the government.
Two week ago Princess Celenhle Dlamini, the acting chairperson of the NAC, also apologised to the arts sector.
More than 1,374 applications were approved and thus far 505 applicants have received their money. Another 318 are expected to be paid in three days, while the department is trying to find additional funds to pay others.
“I entrusted the NAC to bring much-needed relief in such a desperate state of economic vulnerability through the introduction of the inevitable Covid-19 lockdown,” Mthethwa said.
The problem at the NAC, said the minister, was first discovered when a group of adjudicators raised concerns about the process with new council members. He said the new council sought answers on developments with the disbursement process and did not receive a straightforward response from management.
“As a result of this, the council took a decision to halt the disbursement process until further legal advice. Because the council was not receiving assistance from the NAC management, they then took a decision to suspend the CEO and the CFO on March 1.
“Subsequently, they discovered that budget, as allocated, was mismanaged by the NAC, mainly by way of an over-commitment of the available funds that were allocated to creative sector organisations, by more than double the allocated amount in their possession,” Mthethwa explained.
These are still just words for Pretoria-based vocalist Gina Mabasa, who on Thursday had to ask a friend for R150 to buy toiletries. “It is humiliating, but what option do I have?”
She has applied for relief funding from the NAC, but has not received feedback.
“We live off handouts from family and friends. I mostly perform in lounges and clubs, and with the lockdown I have been living off nothing. I stay with my mother and she also lost her income from selling snacks outside a school.”
Patrick Mbelenge, a choreographer, musician and actor who performed internationally and had a comfortable life, had to move back home. He and his siblings now have to ask people for food.
“We live hand to mouth. When I had gigs I could live comfortably in Johannesburg and even pay my rent three months in advance. Now I have to hustle for food every day.”
“This has affected my mental health. I feel stuck and I can’t do anything about it.”
Music festival organiser Thobani Mngadi has lost almost everything, including his home in Morningside, Durban.
The married father of two said his company, which organises female-only music festivals in the city, was allocated R199,000 by the NAC.
“Two months after we signed our contract we were told our funding had been reduced to R31,000. Even that hasn’t been paid.
“I’m now sitting with a legal problem because I’ve signed contracts with artists that I cannot honour. I’ve lost all my life’s savings [and] my investments, life and funeral covers, as I couldn’t continue paying for them. I’m hounded by lawyers daily as I can’t pay even a clothing store account.”
Mngadi and his family had to move in with his mother in uMlazi. “I had to sell my house to avoid it being repossessed.”
Nelisa Mzimela, who runs the Ink Festival in Durban, now has to live off his grandmother’s pension.
“Every month my grandmother sends me the little she can save so I can eat and [I get] handouts from my brother.
“I applied for R80,000 in November, but I received a confirmation that I have actually been approved for R116,000. None of that money has been paid out yet.”
Actor Thami Mbongo, who slept at the NAC offices in Newtown when he was not at work, said: “Initially we thought it would just be for a while and everything would go back to normal, but here we are a year later and even on level one it’s as if artists are stuck on level five because theatres are closed.”
He applied for funding for two projects and has not received any money from the NAC, despite the projects being approved. One, a festival for artists, the other a training initiative for young artists, would have created jobs for 50 youngsters in the industry.
Choreographer Yuhl Headman has been at the NAC every day since the beginning of the demonstrations. He worked at Johannesburg’s Wits Theatre and has been able to support himself with his savings. But with theatres closed and his funds running low, Headman is struggling to make ends meet.
“So I’m at a point right now where I could lose my car if I don’t pay my instalment by the end of this month because I’ve missed about two payments already.”
Headman joined opera singer Sibongile Mngoma and other artists to demand transparency from the NAC.
Tiny Modise and her 10-person traditional percussion band, abaFazi Bengoma, played their first gig in more than a year on Sunday last week.
“The hardest thing about getting gigs now is that people are also [struggling],” she said. “They want us to understand that they don’t have funds and they want to pay us less than we know our craft is worth.”
All breadwinners, they are only able to survive thanks to the charity of friends who feed them and their children, she said.
Modise, who applied for relief from the NAC, is angry about the government’s lack of assistance. “I’ve been on all the continents of the world with my craft. When they talk about South Africa and its culture it’s us, the artists, who go and show people what our culture is,” she sobbed.
“We didn’t go to school, we don’t know this online thing. We are not able to step into that world and start making money.”
In Cape Town, Glenn Swart, an award-winning dancer and actor, will, in the next few weeks, be homeless after his landlords said they could no longer afford to let him stay in the house where he has lived for the past 20 years.
Swart, whose last gig was Kinky Boots at the now-shut Fugard Theatre in the city, used what money he had to pay the rent until that ran out.
He owes about R200,000 in back rent and utility bills.
“My pride and everyone else’s pride took a huge knock. The fear of not knowing where the next job is coming from or how to get food ... ”
Despite applying for help from the NAC, he has heard nothing.
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