As early as 2019, the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture was advised to launch an investigation into the Creative Industries Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA).
The report, compiled by Pieter van Zyl from the Big Business Innovation Group, also informed the department that some officials might have colluded to carry out tasks not aligned with CCIFSA’s principal objectives.
The advice, however, was ignored.
The report revealed that R27-million was allocated to CCIFSA. From this amount, R15-million was for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years, and an additional R12-million was paid in April 2018.
According to the report, the money was spent on car rentals, hotels, food, consultation fees, and even funeral contributions, among other expenses.
Some of the questionable transactions include R40 000 spent on consulting fees, R14 000 for meeting attendance, R12 000 for refreshments, R42 950 for travelling and accommodation, R5 000 for hiring a venue at SAMRO, R9 000 for admin fees, R15 000 for Monomadi retainer fee, R10 374 for secretariat service fee and R20 000 that was paid towards general expenses.
Van Zyl further revealed that about 80 recorded transactions may not have occurred as reported, suggesting possible misrepresentation of the financial records.
These questionable transactions include payments to former CCIFSA high-ranking officials.
The payments also included consultation fees, retainer fees, municipal costs, secretarial service fees, and costs for refreshments and meetings.
Disciplinary measures recommended
In his findings, Van Zyl wrote: “During our review, we identified a transaction described as a contribution to a family funeral. This expenditure is therefore not in line with the principal objectives of the entity.”
He also indicated that possible collusion may have occurred to allow payments for unauthorised transactions.
“An adequate consequence management system must be established and implemented. This includes disciplinary measures to be taken against delegates who are found to have colluded to execute tasks that are not in alignment with the entity’s principal objectives.
“In our opinion, based on the evidence obtained, the utilisation of the funding allocated and transferred by the department to CCIFSA was not in line with the memoranda of agreement and the related addenda.
“We therefore recommend that further investigation into the financial records of CCIFSA be conducted and that the documents that were not available during the review be obtained for examination,” wrote Van Zyl.
Ex-official confirms receiving money
When approached for comment, one of the former CCIFSA officials, Ayanda Roda, confirmed to Sunday World that he received payment from the organisation.
“I can confirm that I received R10 000; the money was for consultations, as I was working for the industry,” said Roda.
“Obviously, I could not have been expected to use my own money to do the work. I had to travel to provinces, so yes, I was paid.”
“I also don’t understand why other members are not revealed in this report because I’m not the only one who received money. Furthermore, I can remember the R15 million but I know nothing about the R12 million. I’d also appreciate clarity on that,” said Roda.
Other officials were also approached for comment, but they failed to respond.
Tony Kgorokge, who was the CCIFSA president at the time, said: “We did a handover to the new leadership that came after us.”
The spokesperson for the department, Zimasa Velaphi, had not responded at the time of publishing.
