The National Arts Council (NAC) is under fire from theatre artists who claim the organisation disregarded due process when handling the National Arts Festival’s (NAF) funding applications.
Sunday World reported last week that only 13% of applications were successful. Out of 210 submissions, only 27 projects received funding.
Of the selected projects, only one, Naelstring/!Naeb from the Northern Cape, secured the highest amount of R200 000.
Meanwhile, The Circle Song: A Story of Remembrance from KwaZulu-Natal received the smallest allocation at R38 000.
Rejection due to non-compliance
The remaining beneficiaries will receive between R40 000 and R100 000 each. In total, R2-million has been allocated for all 27 projects.
The NAC attributed the high rejection rate to non-compliance; however, insiders have alleged that no adjudication process took place at all.
“The NAF applications were never adjudicated. I know this because the NAC currently does not have an advisory panel; the term of the previous panels ended in November last year.
“The NAC only recently issued a public call for new advisory panel nominations. The closing date was set for 30 June 2025,” said a source close to the matter.
A public call for nominations to the advisory panel was made by the NAC in a poster that Sunday World saw.
In terms of Section 11 of the National Arts Council Act, the advisory panel must be publicly nominated and is tasked with evaluating the merits of funding applications.
The process was unlawful
An aggrieved theatre artist said: “We’ve always said that the NAC does not care about us, but it prioritises its interests. The failure to adjudicate the NAF applications in accordance with the act is further evidence.
“Now it’s clear that this process was unlawful and should be nullified. If the NAC maintains that adjudication did occur, then we have a right to know who the adjudicators were; they were nominated by the public, after all.”
Another theatre practitioner added: “While we acknowledge the NAC’s statement that 87% of applicants were non-compliant, they also admitted that only R2-million was allocated for this particular call.
“That funding has already been committed to the 13% deemed successful. If any of us appeal to the minister and become successful, where will the NAC find additional funds?
“There are too many inconsistencies. The NAC owes us answers; otherwise, they’ll keep doing this in all other calls.”
A five-member appeals panel adjudicated the applications, according to NAC CEO Julie Diphofa.
However, Diphofa declined to reveal their identities and even more declined to provide an explanation for their anonymity.
Legality of NAC actions questioned
“The council reappointed the appeals panel as a temporary measure for this NAF cycle. The act allows the NAC to establish any committee it deems necessary, which includes the appeals panel.”
The legality of the NAC’s actions was called into question, though, when she was directed to Section 12 of the NAC Act, which specifies that only the minister has the authority to designate an appeals panel.
She insisted: “The appeal panel is an advisory panel to deal with appeals. It is a multidisciplinary panel, meaning it consists of members coming from various arts fields; hence, we say it is multidisciplinary in nature.
“This panel comprised members from the various NAC panels to make up this multidisciplinary panel dedicated to reviewing appeals.
“Section 12[1] of the act says the NAC can appoint a panel for any field of the arts.”
