SA: NAC ‘lays criminal complaints against demonstrators’

The artists have been demanding answers about the R300m ($21m) Presidential Employment Stimulus Package (PESP), which was launched as an injection into the creative economy to create and maintain jobs in the sector and support individuals and companies that suffered losses during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“They are talking about unlawful things that we are doing in the building, yet I don’t know what those are,” Savage Tau, one of the protesters, told EWN. “They are just saying that we are occupying the space unlawfully and forgetting that this is a public domain.”

The group, comprising between 20 and 40 protesters, said the council was trying to force them out. There were also reports that the NAC had asked for the Red Ants to forcibly remove artists from its Newtown offices, but denied these claims in a statement.

“The NAC has learnt with shock and disbelief the false allegations circulating, pertaining to the alleged forced removal of artists from its offices by the Red Ants. The council and management of the NAC wish to categorically state that these allegations are simply untrue and are fake news,” it said, adding that the accusations are a deliberate attempt to cause tension between the organisation and the creative industry.

The statement added: “The NAC intends to complete the PESP rollout by no later than 31 May 2021 and the NAC is looking for amicable discourse to address all the PESP funding issues of concern that are raised across all parts of the sector. To this end, forced removals of artists from the NAC office is not an option.”

Last week, the High Court in South Africa ordered the NAC to pay the National Arts Festival (NAF) R3.4m of its allocated grant within 72 hours. The court order was a result of legal action taken by the NAF against the council for backtracking on its initial grant offer of R8m. Several other beneficiaries were also issued revised grant letters with reduced amounts.

From the total PESP fund, the NAC said about R84m had been paid to 639 beneficiaries by 31 March. In late February, the council announced that it had suspended CEO Rosemary Mangope and CFO Clifton Changfoot pending an investigation into the mismanagement of the PESP.