The Lottery has stopped a grant on the lavishly funded once-a-year SATMA awards. Illustration: Lisa Nelson (SATMA emblem superimposed more than primary illustration)

From 2019 to 2022 the South African Classic Songs Awards gained more than R16-million with the Lottery.
However the Lottery has withheld payment of your 2023 grant following an investigation.
The NLC has asked the Unique Investigating Unit to probe alleged “double dipping” in years exactly where funders apart from the NLC also chipped in to aid fund the awards.
The scale of funding with the yearly two night time celebration is astonishing.
The Mpumalanga governing administration has funded the awards with about R41-million soon after it “was awarded the best” to host the SATMA awards for 3 yrs, commencing within the 2020/21 fiscal 12 months.
This has become In combination with Lottery funding.
The Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) is refusing to pay a R1.two-million grant it in the beginning approved for an once-a-year common music awards ceremony. Exactly the same occasion also been given tens of countless rand from your Mpumalanga provincial govt.

From 2019 to 2022 the NLC awarded many grants totalling Nearly R16.4-million to the Mageza Heritage Basis, the organisers from the once-a-year South African Conventional Tunes Awards (SATMA).

Nevertheless it halted the payment of the 2023 grant right after an inside investigation.

GroundUp has uncovered massive corruption while in the NLC that befell till the earlier board and management was changed in 2022. The brand new NLC Management is seeking to thoroughly clean up the corruption in the past.

The NLC’s investigation centered on both of those the 2023 funding and before grants awarded to Mageza to phase the awards. The investigation also probed a payment of about R718,000, allegedly compensated from Lottery cash to G4 Brothers, of which Dumisani Gobe, the founder of the SATMA awards, can be a director.

Requested if Mageza compensated G4 a licencing or almost every other expenses to stage the awards, Goba said: “G4 was commissioned to try and do a production of the party and acquired compensated for the people expert services, like to manage and develop the key function, roadshows, etcetera. I'm the founding father of the SATMA Awards; I am the one particular who must be compensated for producing the principle dependant on affordability and what Mageza decides.”

The NLC has handed a file of its investigation into the Distinctive Investigating Device (SIU). It's asked the SIU to investigate 4 distinctive lottery-funded initiatives that acquired grants among Oct 2020 and May 2023, along with the payment to G4 Brothers.

The NLC has also asked the SIU to probe alleged “double dipping” in decades in which funders in addition to the NLC also chipped in to help you fund the awards.

This features a grant of R400,000 within the National Heritage Council and just above R62,000 from “SABC Cellular” in 2020 - the identical fiscal 12 months where the party been given Pretty much R2.six-million in lottery funding and R13.five-million through the Mpumalanga Division of Tradition, Sports and Recreation (MDCSR).

MDCSR funded the awards to the tune of around R41-million after it “was awarded the right” to host the SATMA awards for 3 several years, beginning from the 2020/21 money yr.

The Mpumalanga governing administration’s funding for SATMA around that period was significantly increased than grants to any other organisation for cultural assignments and situations.

The MDSCR gave R3.5-million to SATMA in the 2019/20 economical calendar year just before ramping up its contribution after signing the settlement to host the awards more than the following 3 several years.

The full spending plan submitted to the NLC when Mageza used for that disputed 2023 SATMA funding was R1.2-million. But of the, only R500,000 was allotted for the actual staging from the event. Other line products in the finances provided R400,000 for “staff salaries and Positive aspects”, R200,000 for “stipends” and R100,000 for “vacation.”

The awards have been held on fifteen December on the Durban Global ตรวจ สลาก Convention Centre. Mageza states it urgently desires the blocked grant to pay the event’s assistance companies.

The SATMA awards, which were being very first held in 2006, are staged more than two evenings and it can be unclear how the tens of hundreds of thousands in grants from the NLC, MDCSR along with other funders were being invested.

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

As a substitute, he stated: “Your inquiries are observed. Having said that, we have already been suggested through the NLC that this make any difference is staying investigated with the SIU. Consequently, we are not able to respond to your issues until finally we've been advised the investigation continues to be concluded and the quantity owed continues to be paid out to Mageza.”

Right after Mpumalanga “received the correct” to host the awards for 3 decades, the then provincial Culture, Activity and Recreation MEC, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, explained it as “a boon” for the province.

“Hosting the SATMA Awards has positive financial spinoffs for that Mpumalanga coffers and it also talks towards the Department’s mandate of advertising social cohesion.”