The Cultural and Creative Industries Federation (CCIFSA) in the North West has accused the provincial department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation of failing to offer support to local artists to go and showcase their talent at the National Arts Festival held in the Eastern Cape.
CCIFSA said the department had committed to assisting 13 groups who wanted to attend the three-day event that started on Thursday.
CCIFSA’s provincial chairperson, Bruce Lizwe, said there was an agreement with the government, but the department did not deliver on its promises.
“What has been happening over the years is that artists will go there and make debts, and the government will come to pay after a year. Artists would experience challenges for the government to pay for those debts. So for the first time, we came together with the government and agreed to do a combined program to illuminate all these problems.
“The government accepted that, and we sat and agreed that this is the way forward. But now, on the day that the groups were supposed to depart, there are still no transfers of monies into the accounts for artists . So we could not take the risk for an artist to go there in winter without any food, transport, and accommodation,” Lizwe said.
Department’s chief director for arts and culture, Thabo Mabe, denied this and accused artists of not applying on time.
“The applications from the local artists only came to my office in June. I am trying with other colleagues to see what would be the best way of assisting these groups. Even as late as they have arrived,” said Mabe.