WeeklySA_AdminTRANSPARENCY: Minister Zizi Kodwa dissolve “illegally constituted” NAC Council or else we go to court, demands South African Roadies Association
By Edward Tsumele
The South African Roadies Association (SARA) has escalated its row with the National Arts Council (NAC) by demanding its immediate resolution.
SARA, which runs a school that trains youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in live events as technicians, charges that all provincial representatives of the NAC were irregularly appointed, and therefore the state arts body is “illegally constituted” as it stood.
Through its lawyer this week, SARA has sent Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa a letter demanding the dissolution of the NAC Council in seven days, failure of which the organisation might have to seek a court order forcing the Minister’s hand
SARA president Freddie Nyathela has confirmed that indeed the association was demanding the dissolution of the council and further asking for evidence of the “public and transparent” process having taken place prior to the appointment of those council members representing provinces. The rest of the council members – nine of them – were appointed by the Minister as per law.
“The NAC cannot be allowed to be led by an unlawfully constituted council which undermines the rule of law. There is a solid reason why section 4 (2) is included in the Act, and there is no section of the act that permits the MEC to nominate anyone to serve in the Council,” Nyathela said.
Approached for comment yesterday, the Minister’s spokesperson, Litha Mpondwana, who said: “The Department has provided a comprehensive response to SARA and to your previous query on the NAC Council. As per previous correspondences, there are no further developments to share. As we have previously stated, we will not litigate the matter between SARA and the Department publicly”.
This latest development follows a sequence of events, including the submission of a letter by SARA to the Minister last month under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), asking that the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) furnish the organisation with evidence that due process took place in each province in relation the appointment of the provincial representatives portion of the NAC council. The news of the PAIA request was reported by CITYLIFE/ARTS in previous editions of the publication
SARA says its request to DSAC produced no evidence pointing to the effect that there ever was a “public and transparent” process followed before provincial members representing the provinces were appointed by the Minister in respect of each province.
Instead the Members of the Executive Councils (MECS) responsible for the sport, arts and culture, contrary to the NAC Act, had nominated the individuals who were eventually appointed by the national Minister to sit on the NAC Council.
In terms of procedure, MECs were supposed to only oversee a “public and transparent“ process which must produce names of individuals to be eventually sent to the Minister to consider for appointment, SARA said yesterday. The current NAC’s term of office started on January 1 2021 and ends on December 31 this year, meaning SARA’s demands for the dissolution of the council has come eight months before the expiry date.
The latest development is a culmination of a series of correspondence between SARA and the department over the issue in the past weeks – without resolution. – CITYLIFE/ARTS
