Masisi unhappy with Arts Council
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Sunday July 21, 2024 06:00
Masisi has vowed to pay particular attention to the organisation to ensure that it fulfils its mandate. Speaking during the National Arts Festival awards ceremony on Monday, Masisi said he will be paying the NACB a visit from time to time as he would like to see it functioning at optimal level. The Council was finally established in 2020 by an Act of Parliament, ending a long cry to set up a body to foster the nation’s artistic potential and nurture creative talents. However, it has endured a slow start, which was marred by boardroom squabbling, something which has seemingly not gone down well with the President. “I must tell you, I’m going to pay particular presidential attention to the NACB. I want them to make up for the lost time. We are going to move mountains, so don’t be surprised when I come around and shake you a little bit,” Masisi said, suggesting that he is not happy with the performance of the Council. Masisi stated that the NACB’s mandate signifies government’s commitment to nurturing and commercialising the creative sector.
The president’s remarks followed the Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare’s admission to the NACB’s failures. Rakgare said the NACB has not had a good start since it commenced operating. “Your Excellency, you have given us the responsibility to run the ministry. You understood the task and the challenge that lay ahead of us. But we accepted and appreciated the task nonetheless. However, it’s not all that we have done that you are happy with. You had wanted the Arts Council to have accelerated the commercialisation of the arts sector but that has not been the case. We have no words than to apologise because there are no excuses to give for our failures,” Rakgare said. When the Act to establish the NACB was finally enacted a few years back, local creatives hailed it as a new dawn for the industry. However, despite it being a new baby, the NACB has endured a troubled start to life amid controversies and boardroom wars that have derailed its performance. Its substantive Chief Executive Officer, Shombie Ellis, was suspended just a few months into office amid grants issues. She was only reinstated recently following the intervention of a task team that was set up by minister to look into the matter. The Council also experienced some employee relations challenges following the resignation of two directors that he says affected its mandate.
Rakgare had in 2022 said the ministry and the NACB were working on a proposed transition plan, which will see some of the programmes that had been run by the ministry now being given to the council to take charge of. One such programme is the National Arts Festival, which continues to be run by the ministry’s Department of Arts and Culture. Earlier this year, Rakgare told Parliament that the Council is also plagued by funding challenges, especially for the arts and culture grants. He said the NACB had an arts and culture grant of P4 million against a P187.5 million funding request by artists for the 2023/24 financial year. “The Council experienced funding challenges, especially for the arts and culture grants. The NACB had an arts and culture grant of P4m, against a P187.5m funding request by artists. This ended up with deserving projects needing more funding. Kindly, note that the P4m funding is for the whole country,” Rakgare said.
The minister also said the NACB needs at least P1 million per parliamentary constituency for the funding to make the desired creative, socio-economic impact.