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Recently, the format of Judge for Yourself on eNCA was changed so that it could be presented on the digital platform rather than the conventional television outlet.
And in order to accommodate the digital platform, the format of the programme has also changed.
We now take a topic and provide the viewer with context and opinion.
Our first programme concentrated on the performance of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, now under the leadership of Minister Gayton McKenzie. To be clear, and what was clarified in our programme, was that we did not seek in any way to undermine the achievements of McKenzie as a person, businessman or as leader of what is rapidly becoming a successful political party.
Our focus was on the performance of the department. We took three examples of where the department has lamentably failed to fulfil its mandate.
Open Book Festival snub
The first of these was the Open Book Festival, a remarkable event that takes place annually in Cape Town. This festival constitutes a diverse, inclusive and vibrant platform for artists and authors.
It has run for 11 years, and the Western Cape government designated it as a flagship event, which allows it to access funding from the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
Anyone who has attended the Open Book Festival will be struck by the diversity of the audience and the range of authors who present their works at the event.
It is a magnificent achievement that ensures a wide, diverse range of authors’ voices are heard as they present their works to a broader audience.
Listening to these various authors is enough to encourage the audience to pursue the important task of reading.
The department informed Mervyn Sloman from the Book Lounge, who was the main organiser of the festival, that flagship projects were being scrapped.
If the festival wanted financing, they would have to apply to the Mzansi Golden Economy, which offers funding, apparently, in the order of R100-million.
They applied, but heard nothing. If it were not for crowdfunding, this important festival would not have taken place last year. Somehow, however, the department does not think that encouraging reading and ensuring the flourishing of important festivals such as the Open Book Festival was an important component of its broader mandate.
Havana International Book Fair
We also invited on to our programme CA Davids, the acclaimed author of Blacks of Cape Town and How to be a Revolutionary.
Last year, South Africa was invited to be a guest of honour at the 33rd Havana International Book Fair. The committee, which included the National Writers’ Association of South Africa, the South African Book Sellers’ Association and the National Coordinator of the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa, drew up a comprehensive list of writers who they considered would best represent South Africa. One of these was CA Davids.
She informed us that at the very last moment, McKenzie removed her and other writers from the list. The list promoted four self-help writers and three evangelical pastors who attended the festival, notwithstanding the absence of any literary contribution by any of them.
And then, to make matters even worse, Davids was informed that McKenzie wished to have more white and coloured representation, ignoring the fact that she fitted into that very list.
National Arts Festival
We then cited the example of the National Arts Festival, which takes place each year and has become the pre-eminent arts event in the country.
Here, many promising young artists from disadvantaged backgrounds have been allowed to present their work and obtain the opportunity to gain larger audiences. It is the central festival in the South African arts world.
Yet the department let it down by not providing funding, thus creating a situation where it may not take place in the future.
Formula One and the Olympics
We noted that McKenzie was particularly enthusiastic about bringing Formula One to South Africa, as well as the Olympics. But you have to ask, how does this actually promote talented young artists, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds? How do writers, painters, sculptors, actors or singers bring their work to a wider audience and be promoted to greater levels of success, which they doubtless deserve?
We asked McKenzie or a representative of the department to come on to our programme to answer these questions. In our view, ministers should be accountable to the public and be subjected to these kinds of questions.
Accountability is surely a constitutional value.
All we got was a text from the department’s spokesperson saying, inter alia, “Some festivals have historically not been accustomed to participating in the same access processes as the broader public.
“The department is in the process of broadening access to ensure that wider communities also have meaningful opportunities to benefit. As part of this review, considerations have been given to the funding patterns to promote greater equity and inclusivity across the sector.”
But the point is that while new festivals and events which apply for money should also be encouraged, the three examples cited are important in that they do promote greater inclusivity and provide a venue where talented artists are not deprived of taxpayers’ money designed to promote arts and culture in South Africa.
Why help destroy what we already have?
This represents the crux of our gravamen. Apart from this somewhat incomprehensible response from the spokesperson, McKenzie said on social media, “You want government to fund the same people who are established and have sponsors. Others must apply, but not them? For 30 years they have been getting established. What about township entrants? You guys shame government officials for overstaying in post, but look at you.”
That is hardly a response to refusing to fund events that clearly encourage entrants from poorer communities and promote artists. And if McKenzie can show that there is a series of other festivals that require the scarce funding of the department as opposed to these, which are inclusive and have promoted countless artists from the townships and other disadvantaged communities, then he should have the courage to actually say so and explain so in explicit terms.
McKenzie has failed to take up the opportunity of answering our questions after an open invitation to him to come on to our programme. We are not going to give up.
Our programme is devoted to constitutional values, including the vitally important value of accountability of those in power. McKenzie cannot run away from his record.
Either it stands, or he needs to justify why the department has not been, at least on the face of it, highly negligent in the promotion of its mandate. DM
Judge Dennis Davis is a legal academic, jurist and retired judge. He also hosts Judge for Yourself on eNCA.