Court orders Arts Council to cough up R3.48m within 72 hours to pay National Arts Festival

The South Gauteng high court has given the National Arts Council just 72 hours to pay over R3.48m of an R8m grant to the National Arts Festival.

The court also suspended a letter issued by the NAC in terms of which it had effectively withdrawn the R8m grant.

The R8m grant formed part of the Presidential Stimulus Programme (PESP) to support artists during the lockdown and was granted to the Festival to run three projects providing employment to 400 artists nationally and in the Makhanda region.

Festival CEL Monica Newton on Thursday described it a major court victory which spelt out that the NAC could not enforce unilateral changes to a contract forming part of the PESP.

While the festival had immediately begun projects and committed money, the NAC had reneged on the agreement and attempted to force the festival to accept less than half the original grant or lose it entirely.

The court on Wednesday said if the NAC did not pay the the balance of the R8m the festival could again approach the court on an urgent basis for relief.

The order is likely to serve as a victory for hundreds of other institutions and artists who received similar letters unilaterally reducing the promised funding.

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