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500 signatures reached
To: Julie Diphofa , Interim CEO of The National Arts Council
Calling for the National Arts Council to answer for mismanagement of the PESP funds
The National Arts Council of South Africa needs to answer for how the Presidential Employment Stimulus Package (PESP) has been distributed in order to justify their appeal to sector to reduce the initially promised amounts.
There is currently a sit in at the National Arts Council offices in Newtown (as well as across the country) and artists have not left the premises since 3 March seeking answers. They have largely been unacknowledged and key questions have not been satisfactorily answered. We appeal to the National Arts Council and the Department of Sports Arts and Culture for transparency and evidence so that we can understand how the current situation happened and verify the legitimacy of the claim that they "oversubscribed" the initial R 300million.
Irrefutable proof needs to be given that the PESP funding has not been misused, and high level government intervention needs to happen to expedite the investigations.
Why is this important?
It is important for an online petition to support the ongoing daily protests and sit in, as more attention needs to be given to this matter so that government can respond.
It is essential because the longer a response is delayed, the longer it will take to distribute the funds to artists that are in dire need of the funds to support basic living expenses. Many live performers are not able to work at all due to Covid-19 restrictions and need the funding to survive.
It is important that we can see that the PESP grant from treasury has legitimately been distributed to artists and that artists will be the key beneficiaries of the newly proposed structure. The artists under Im4theArts are calling for a published list of all PESP beneficiaries and the amounts granted to each in order to verify council's claims and justify why artists have been asked to reduce their initial contracted subsidies.
It is important that this issue is highlighted and that the way in which council has handled the PESP and treated artists in the process is brought to the light of the general public. The issue needs to be escalated because artists are starving while the allocated funds are being held by the NAC until artists commit to lesser contracts.
High level attention and action need to be brought to this matter. Soon.