A forensic investigation has been authorised against the troubled Cultural and Creative Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA).
Dr Cynthia Khumalo, the department’s acting director-general, informed the sports, arts, and culture portfolio committee of this decision on Tuesday.
The investigation will begin in 2015 and will be conducted throughout all nine provinces. Although they have been formulated, it is currently unclear how many and what kind of charges there are.
The accusations were received from risk management on December 3, 2024, according to Sunita Ramanand, the chief audit executive.
“A preliminary investigation was done in January this year, and right now the department is busy with the process of getting a service provider to do the investigation,” said Ramanand, noting that the service provider will be appointed before the end of March
The investigation is expected to last about 60 days.
Ramanand said: “The investigation will focus on the funding of CCIFSA, how the money was used, and whether any officials within the department are implicated, among other things. We want to finish this as quickly as possible, noting the interest in this matter.”
Although the portfolio committee was pleased to hear the news, it was curious about the terms of reference.
Minister promises to freeze funding
The EFF member of the committee, Eugene Mthethwa, said: “We want to know the auditing firms who produced CCIFSA’s financial statements because when we went to a conference they were not there, hence they were never adopted.
“We also want to know what informed the department to fund the CCIFSA every year despite these discrepancies.”
Gayton McKenzie, the Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, is in agreement with Mthethwa, citing that funding for the CCIFSA will be frozen.
“As far as I’m concerned, the CCIFSA is dead. It is a den of corruption. The CCIFSA has not accounted for the money,” McKenzie said.
“I have my suspicion that they enjoyed some political cover; officials were strong-armed by the political arm. But that is just my opinion; my investigation shall reveal everything.”
McKenzie also disclosed that a member of CCIFSA approached him and requested that he end the investigation.
“I told them that if they’ve done nothing wrong, then they’ve nothing to worry about. I know the skeletons will come out; a lot of people will fall off with CCIFSA,” he said.
Former CCIFSA boss wants evidence
Joy Mbewana, the former president of CCIFSA, stated that while they had concerns, they were not opposed to the investigation.
“I know nothing about the forensic investigation, but we’re not against it. I thought it had started already because he’s been saying it’s starting tomorrow,” said Mbewana.
Mbewana denied that McKenzie was approached by a CCIFSA member requesting that he drop the investigation.
“We’d appreciate it if he could provide us with evidence, be it a letter from CCIFSA or the name of a person from CCIFSA who communicated such nonsense with him.
“If the investigation has not commenced, then why is he calling us crooks? Where did he get that evidence?”
