Call for funding by Lotto for creative sector for 2024/2025 remains uncertain

This is because only five adjudicators are employed by National Lotteries who are still dealing with a backlog, causing an indefinite delay for issuing a new call.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

Creatives hoping to get funding for their projects for the 2024/25 financial year will have to wait for longer to hear from the Lotteries Commission and its distribution agency Arts, Culture and Heritage Agency as to when the application period will open, CITYLIFE/ARTS can reveal.

The reason it appears is the backlog of applications for the previous year that the agency must sift through before opening a new window for fresh applications. And quite puzzling only five people are employed to adjuvate hundreds of applications, two of whom were only employed this week, Monday, 1 July 2024.

The Lotteries Commission in answer to CITYLIFE/ARTS questions yesterday, July 4, 2024, confirmed its lack of capacity in the distribution agencies as the five educators are responsible for adjudicating across all the genres across the distribution agencies under the Commission.

In line with the regulations of the Lotteries Amendment Act, No 32 of 2013, the allocation of National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund funds to the different sectors is set down in regulations and is currently as follows:

The Sport and Recreation Sector receives 28% The Arts, Culture and National Heritage Sector receives 23%. An amount equal to 2% of the total is reserved for the Miscellaneous Purposes Sector. These funds are used for various activities that fall outside the scope of the main three sectors. Board members of the NLC allocate such grants in accordance with conditions set by the Minister of Trade and Industry.

The Lotteries Commission told CITYLIFE/ARTS that the commission is not in charge for employing adjustors, but the Department Trade; Industry and Competition is.

Eyebrows were raised on Monday July 24, when the recently ended National Festival in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape got last minute approval for their application approval funding for its 2024 edition, which marked its 50 years of existence, after it was initially declined for funding.

In answering CITYLIFE/ARTS’s question about the delay in opening the call for funding, the Commission had this to say:

“The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) issued public communication regarding delays in the grant funding processes on 3 April 2024 and 25 June 2024 to keep applicants and other stakeholders informed of operational developments (Please find them here for ease of reference:

MEDIA RELEASES

Some of the issues highlighted in those statements relate to:

• Delays caused by strengthening of verification measures.

• Limited number of Distributing Agency members which has resulted in delays in the

processing and adjudication of applications.

• The timing of the next Call for Applications, which is dependent on the reduction of

the current backlog.

At present, the National Lotteries Commission has five (5) Distributing Agency members adjudicating applications across all sectors. Two of the five members were appointed on 1 July 2024.

Distributing Agency members are appointed by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.

The National Arts Festival

The National Arts Festival is one of 651 organisations that applied for funding under the 2023/24 Call

for Applications in the Arts, Culture and National Heritage (including Environment) Sector.

Their application was adjudicated by the Distributing Agency and a grant was approved.

Of the 651 applying organisations in the Arts Sector;

• 273 organisations have been approved for funding

• 268 have been declined

• 85 are pending adjudication

• 16 suspended for information and

• 9 applications have been withdrawn.”

The Commission however did not answer CITYLIFE/ARTS’ question as to when will the next call be made. This indefinite delay means that uncertainty about the future and fate of planned projects by artists and arts organisations continues.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in the new Government of National Unity on Sunday, June 30, 2024, appointed Parks Tau as the new Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition.