Creative and Cultural industry Awards nominees a mixed bag of mediocrity and real talent

The awards launched by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture amidst heated debate by a divided creative and cultural sector, will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

I know debate is raging on right now about the awards, and that is about the timing of the inaugural Creative and Cultural Industry Awards (CCI Awards), and obviously for their omissions of some of the very categories that are in fact the engine of the sector.

I also know that a significant number of the creative sector, has boycotted them, for various reasons they are advancing, and that perhaps explains the absence of some of the very best in the creative sector among the nominees that have been announced so far.

One does not need to look hard to notice big names that are not part of these awards in several categories, and yet these are the very same people why we go to exhibition openings every week, to theatre openings, every week, and why we buy books and read as these books, paintings, drawings are vibrant, capturing the human condition of South Africa of today. These stories told through different art media are the very reason the South African creative sector is today what it is: that is vibrant, and a force to reckon with internationally.

I am not here to say why so and so is not on the list, or why so and so, is on the list of the nominees instead of so and so. But from a cursory glance, it is obvious that many who are the heart beat, and I mean really creative forces in their respective fields, seem to have given these inaugural awards a miss. Here I will not bother to tell you who those people are, as I am quite confident that you have your names also. What is important here is that their absence on this list, for whatever reason, cannot and should not be taken for granted or lightly, as that is saying something.

I must however be clear and state that this list of the nominees, to me appears, to be a mixed bag of the predictable, the good, very good, the ridiculous and clearly mediocre. Again I will not say who among these nominees belongs to what label I have just defined.
Dear reader, please give yourself sometime to have a look at the list and decide for yourself which artists that have been nominated are what below:

:
Outstanding Fashion and Textile Designer
Laduma Ngxokolo: Maxhosa Africa
Rich Mnisi: Rich Mnisi
Mzukisi Mbane: Imprint ZA

Outstanding Children Fiction
Lebohang Masango
Stan Montsho
Sarona Lengana
Shudufhadzo Netshiluvana
Phathutshedzo Netshivhulana

Outstanding Theatre Production
Monageng Vice Motshabi
Aubrey Sekhabi
Marie Vogts
Kenneth Bolokwe
Mfundo Sono

Outstanding Crafter
Rebecca Mathibe
Zizipho Poswa
Badumile Dlamini

Outstanding Visual Artist
Haroon Gunn-Salie
Neo Nene Mahlangu
Mncedi Madolo
Mondli Kunene

Outstanding Performance (Poet and comedian)
Thekiso Maarma
Onalerona Seana
Bulelwa Basse

Outstanding Musician
Volley Nchabeleng
Sibusiso Jack Junior Lerole
Wouter Kellerman
Creshwell October

Outstanding Publisher
Terence Ball
Itumeleng Qhali
The Nalibali Trust
Book Dash
Dee Wee Publication

Outstanding Non-Fiction Book
Milton Shain
Mandla Radebe
Kumi Naidoo
Sandra Swart
Sipho Sithole

Outstanding Fiction Book
Augustina Matseko Ramotekoa
Buntu Siwisa
Morabo Morojele
Vernon Head
Barry Gilder

.The CCI Awards will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, March 30, 2024.