Artists irate over money owed them
BCM blames ‘bureaucratic’ processes
SCORES of Eastern Cape artists who performed at Buffalo City Metro (BCM) entertainment events over the festive season – including the official switching on of the Christmas lights and carnivals in King William’s Town, Mdantsane and East London – are yet to be paid for their services.
DJs, comedians and MCs claim to have been sent from pillar to post for weeks in their effort to find out from metro officials about their payments.
Some of them spoke to the Saturday Dispatch yesterday on condition that they remain anonymous, saying they feared victimisation and being left out of future events organised by the city if their identities were revealed.
Artists spoke of being owed amounts of R5 000, R10 000, R15 000 and R25 000.
Conservative calculations – at R5 000 per artist – show that the artists are collectively owed a minimum of a R1-million.
Some say they battled to get through “the difficult month” of January as they had already pinned their hopes on their BCM payment.
Others said they battled to send their children to school and to put food on the table. One artist said he missed last month’s instalment of his car payment.
They accused the metro of prioritising artists from outside, “while we are left to suffer”.
The contracts they signed stated they were to be paid “within 30 days”.
BCM spokesman Samkelo Ngwenya yesterday confirmed that many local artists who performed at the metro carnivals and the switching on of lights, were yet to be paid.
He said this was as a result of “bureaucratic” processes and was not funding related.
Early December, the metro hosted the switching on of the lights in King William’s Town and East London where scores of local artists joined their national counterparts on stage in the festivities.
Later that month, three-day carnivals were held in King William’s Town, Mdantsane and East London, where locals were again joined by some nationally acclaimed artists, such as Shekinah, Mafikizolo, Samthing Soweto, Lady Zamar, Professor, Prince KB, OkMalumKoolKat, Naak Musiq, Destruction Boyz and East London’s very own awardwinning DJ Mobi Dixon.
At the time, Ngwenya said such events formed part of the R5.5-million budget that the metro put aside for December entertainment.
He also said at the time that the metro had taken a decision to be “biased towards local artists” and invest in them.
He said then: “This is evident by us having 200 local artists who will be performing during our shows.”
To stay true to their plan of supporting local artists, homegrown talent led all the lineups of their events, with only two or three national acts making appearances each day. All the events also had local talent acting as the MCs.
Ngwenya yesterday profusely apologised to the affected artists saying he was certain that “their frustration was beyond words”.
“We sincerely value them and part of our standing position is that we include the bulk of local artists to feature in our programmes. We have never had problems with payments in the past and I am sure artists can attest to that. In this unfortunate instance, we are facing the challenges of compliance and legislation.”
It is now a requirement, Ngwenya said, for government institutions to pay anyone who does business with government “via a registered source which is now the central supplier database”.
He said the metro had to restart the payment process and apply for exemptions as local artists did not have registered companies which were on a government database.
“It would be risky to pay artists via an indirect route and we are optimistic that this matter will be resolved soon.”
The metro has also resolved to host an empowerment programme for artists after this payment process. This was to assist them in setting up their trades as businesses.
He could not provide a total of how much is due to the artists. —