Employees at Downtown Music Hub (DTMH) have not received their salaries for two months.
Sunday World can reveal that staff are working from home because they do not have money for transport.
Despite the non-payment, employees are expected to use their own resources to perform their duties.
Not the first time salaries are delayed by months
“We are full-time employees, yet we are not treated as such. As we speak, we have not received our salaries for two months now. The worst part is that we don’t know when we’ll receive our money. We are currently working from home, using our own resources to do office work,” complained one employee.
Another source added: “We did approach the management and they said we must wait for the new financial year. Now that we are in the new financial year, we don’t know what’s causing the delay. We are obviously frustrated because we have bills to pay. It’s not the first time we haven’t been paid. In 2021, we went six months without salaries.”
Last month, Sunday World reported that the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA) used to bail this institution out.
At that time, a source said: “This institution was always treated as a cash cow by [the former CEO] and his CCIFSA friends. At the time, he was the acting CEO of DTMH. Eventually, CCIFSA became like an ATM for DTMH. Whenever they needed funds, they would contact CCIFSA, and CCIFSA would pay.”
CCIFSA admits to bailing DTMH out in the past
Former CCIFSA president Tony Kgoroke had said: “We, as CCIFSA, had to pay some of DTMH’s debts. These include electricity and security. We saw a need to save that institution and decided to intervene.”
Sunday World has previously reported that it is unclear whether the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) or the National Arts Council (NAC) owns DTMH. While the NAC bought DTMH, it is currently controlled by DSAC.
NAC denies it owns or controls entity
Julie Diphofa from the NAC reiterated that the council is not responsible for managing DTMH.
“The NAC is not responsible for running DTMH. It has never made any allocation for the operation of the establishment. Please refer your questions to DSAC, as the historical funder of DTMH operations,” said Diphofa.
Spokesperson for DSAC, Zimisa Velaphi, was approached for comment. Reminders were sent, but there was no response.
DTMH was approached, and they said they are waiting for funding. In a brief statement they said: “Please be advised that Downtown Music Hub operates on funding provided and is currently waiting on funding.”
