As it turns out, the Durban Jazz festival was not postponed but cancelled.
For the first time in 22 years, a signature event, Durban Jazz Festival, did not take place.
On December 24 2024, the Durban Jazz Festival team issued a public statement stating that the event has been postponed.
The statement read as follows: “The Durban Jazz Festival 2024, originally scheduled for December 26th, has been postponed due to logistical challenges.”
Festival cancelled due to lack of funds
Today, Sunday World can reveal that the event was not postponed, but was effectively cancelled.
We can further reveal that the issue had nothing to do with logistics, but had everything to do with the money.
The KZN Department of Sport Arts and Culture (DSAC) MEC Mntomuhle Khawula refused to sponsor the event with R2-million. Instead he offered R150, 000.
The event was scheduled to take place at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Sunday World can reveal that the event organiser, Mdu Ngcobo, could not pay the deposit for artists and service providers.
“I’ve always applied for KZN-DSAC funding and it’s always been approved. But this year I was unsuccessful. I didn’t have a contract, but I was communicating with the officials. And our discussions were promising. As a result there was a reasonable expectation that they’d sponsor the event. Hence I went ahead and planned the event.
Organiser was left high and dry
“I was informed just two days before the event that I’d not get the sponsorship. By that time I’d done everything, including booking the artists, the venue was booked. Accommodation and flights had been booked, the bill boards were all over Durban,” said Ngcobo.
“I had to pay for PR and marketing. But due to this hiccup, all that money went down the drain. I’m already drowning in debt and I don’t know how I’ll pay those creditors,” he said.
“An event of that magnitude needs about R7-million. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting the department to pay for all the costs. However, the R2-million that I was asking for would have covered important expenses, including creation of jobs for artists.
“For example, our event plays live music. And this means I have to transport and accommodate the entire band. Ordinarily, a band consists of 10 to 12 members. In addition to that, live bands do not come cheap. Each live band or artist will charge anything between R200, 000 to R400, 000,” he explained.
Incurred a lot of debts from doing PR for event
He said that he incurred a lot of debt as a result.
Spokesperson for the KZN DSAC, Ntando Mnyandu, said that the department reserves the discretion to fund and or sponsor events based on strict guidelines and merits, as well as available resources.
“Any agreement event organisers enter into with artists remains a contract between two parties. It does not include the department as events organisers do so at their own discretion. MEC Khawula has on numerous occasions reiterated this with organisers. That while the department offers support to events practitioners, it does not foot the entire bill for planning events. It therefore remains the organiser’s responsibility to source adequate funding for their events,” said Ntando.
MEC defends decision to slash funding from R2m to R150,000
“It must be understood that MEC Khawula has a responsibility of identifying, developing, naturing and promoting talent. And he is also seized with the duty of maximising the limited budget to developing infrastructure. This includes arts centres, sport complexes, libraries and other establishments throughout KwaZulu-Natal. It remains the competence of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture,” he said.
