National Arts Council plunged into yet another controversy with a senior government official serving on its board

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

The National Arts Council may yet find itself in yet another controversy following revelation that a senior civil servant in the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation sits on the NAC council as a Provincial representative. This maybe in direct conflict with the law, governing the composition and the manner in which council members are selected and appointed.

Boniface Mazilazila is employed as a director of Cultural Industries in the Gauteng Province’s Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation. He at the same time is understood to have been selected by the MEC in the same department to be considered for appointment by the national Minister of Sport, Arts, Culture in 2022 to serve in the NAC Council. This is after the resignation of Tshepo Mashiane from his seat on the NAC council as a provincial representative for Gauteng Province in June 2022..

This is as the law governing the National Arts Council does not seem to have a provision for government officials to be appointed to sit on the NAC Council.

It is also unclear as to whether before Mazilazila was appointed, as per the law, there was a public and transparent process that led to his selection for consideration to be appointed a member of the NAC Council by the Minister.

Mazilazila’s comfortable seat on the NAC since 2022 became an issue of public debate this week, when outspoken arts activist and South African Roadies Association (SARA) president Freddie Nyathela posted a message on X (formerly twitter), complaining about a civil servant who serves on the NAC “illegally.”
CITYLIFE/ARTS has since identified the civil servant to be Mazilazila of the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.
CITYLIFE/ARTS sought comment from Thabo Thabo Moloja MEC Morakane Mosupyoe’s spokesperson through email and followed up by a phone call that remained unanswered. The message was not retained either.
As of now, we have not received the comment, and if and when we do receive it, we will update the story.
CITYLIFE/ARTS had asked the MEC’s the following questions:
.
.How was the above official selected -was there a public and transparent process held before his selection by the MEC?

.Can you confirm his position as an employee of the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation?

.Given this state of affairs, are there any steps that the MEC is going to take to rectify this situation?

The NAC is an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, whose main role is to fund creatives and arts projects in a number of disciplines that include visual art, theatre, literature, dance, craft and festivals. Since 2020 with the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic, that almost brought the creative and cultural sector to its knees, apart from its annual budget to disburse to the sector, the NAC received additional funding from Treasury called the Presidential Economic Stimulus Programme (PESP) to date to the tune of over R500 million. This special fund is meant to stimulate economic activities in the Covid-19 battered sector, and thus thrusting the NAC Council into the crucial and strategic position of making sure that governance issues are adhered to by the panels that adjudicate applications from artists for funding.
“It came to SARA’s attention that an employee (public servant) at the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation has been unlawfully appointed to the NAC Council to replace a Gauteng Provincial Representative Council member who resigned on the 14th of June 2022. This is blatant disregard for the rule of law, for Section 4 (2) of the National Arts Council Act,” Nyathela commented this week.