KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has experienced many challenges over the last few years – the Covid-19 pandemic, civil unrest in July 2021 which led to wide-scale looting and more recently, the devastating floods. The DA extends our deepest condolences to the families who have lost love ones as a result and to those families who have lost their possessions and been displaced. While KZN’s Department of Arts and Culture (DoAC) may see itself as a separate entity to these challenges, if one looks at the civil unrest in particular – which led to murder and racial attacks – it is clear that it has a vital role, given its core mandate of promoting social cohesion. Clearly it has failed on this count.

Massive under-expenditure

Unfortunately, when we look at the DoAC’s financial year budget – or even baseline projected budgets – it remains questionable as to whether we are looking at manipulated figures, which look good on paper, or facts based on outputs and achievable outcomes for the benefit of KZN’s people. Then there is the exclusive budget underspend of R131 million in 2021/2022 which equates to 10% of the total budget. This has been the highest under expenditure in the history of the Department. It is unacceptable that the DoAC continues to underspend and get away with it.

The underspend is highly disturbing, in view of the critical departmental vacancies that remain. It is also mind-boggling that R50 million was budgeted for less than 50 staff members. Fortunately, for KZN’s people, payments of salaries cannot be rolled over or it would have found its way into the pockets of senior departmental officials. Then there are the many KZN musicians and artists who were financially side-lined by the DoAC during the pandemic. The unspent funds could have upgraded arts centres for their use or even built much-needed new libraries in our province. Last year, the Department disposed of almost its entire vehicle fleet. Some of the R131 million could have been used to buy replacement vehicles.

The DA believes that the only reason this Department did not spend all its funds is because senior officials ran out of ways to siphon some for themselves. The DoAC is notorious for squandering funds and it comes as no surprise that it has so dismally failed at managing and spending its 2021/22 budget allocation. Moving forward, the DA expects a commitment from MEC Hlengiwe Mavimbela that the 2022/23 budget will be spent and that it will be spent responsibly.

Broken promises

The DA has numerous concerns when it comes to the DoAC. These include Heritage Assets expenditure for the financial year 2022/2023, while the Department has no clue as to what it currently owns. Added to this is the indentured labourers monument – which the Indian community is still waiting for after a decade. Last year, the Premier, in his State of the Province Address, promised that this would be completed by November 2021. The DoAC HOD also assured the portfolio committee that the monument was on track for November 2021. Yet today, there is still no monument while the budgeted R10 million is shrinking fast.

Dodgy Booksellers

There are 17 companies listed as having been awarded three year tenders for the supply of KZN libraries’ books, yet none of the companies are members of the South African Booksellers Association. Three are not even legitimate book sellers while others on the list were red flagged by eThekwini Municipality. This led to a tender being withdrawn due to alleged bid rigging and the fact that two of these companies operate from the same address. A simple Google search provides the evidence required to link the three companies.

Criminal charges

The DA has laid a criminal charge with the South African Police Services (SAPS) with Phoenix Cas Number 719/03/2022. A further charge has been laid by the DA against certain DoAC individuals after the discovery of further departmental fraud and corruption relating to the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) valued at R2.2 million, for the as yet unopened Dukuduku Library. Further criminal charges were then laid with Pietermaritzburg SAPS (PMB CAS Number 199/03/2022) after the case was transferred. Additional charges were also laid relating to the procurement of R5.8 million in PPE for eight as yet unopened modular libraries in the province.

One scandal after another

KZN’s Music House is yet another embarrassment. This studio was meant to be the best in the southern hemisphere, yet not a single CD has been recorded despite millions of Rands having been spent. The question is: on who? The DA expects the long outstanding forensic report to be made public. We want to know who will be held responsible for this massive failure and why they have not been criminally charged. The Uthungulu Arts Centre is yet another embarrassment with more than R30 million spent on a now dilapidated building and a R30 million consultant’s fee to date.

The DA also established that on the last day of the 2021/2022 financial year, the Department paid R7.8 million for the procurement of magazines for KZN libraries. To date, not a single magazine has been delivered. Surprisingly, this payment was made to Ithala bank which has now refused to process the payment due to irregularities and has sent it back to the DoAC. Since the DA exposed this debacle, the Department’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has gone into hiding, refusing to release the funds. 

The DA also exposed the DoaC for having spent R7.9 million on library-based laptops for the public, which were instead given to librarians and staff. The amount of money spent on laptops was almost eight times more than the market price. This was followed by spending R39 million on a three-year contract on internet library connectivity which is exorbitant.

Then, in October 2021, the DA revealed that the DoAC had bought two 65-seater buses – at a cost of R2 million each – for use as mobile libraries. The buses were plastered with photos of the MEC yet today they remain unused as a result of being unsuitable for their intended purpose.

It is clear that this Department thinks it can do as it pleases and not follow mechanisms to prevent corruption. This is not helped by an MEC who does not listen when concerns are raised and who has failed to address a single scandal brought to her attention by the DA.

The DA will ensure that every single individual who is robbing this Department is held to account. The DoAC must know that KZN Legislature’s real opposition is the DA and that we will not allow our province’s people to be hood-winked anymore.