Budget blues stifle artists
Staff unsure of future at Audio Visual Centre
INTERNAL problems at the Eastern Cape Audio Visual Centre (ECAVC) may bring to a halt the progress of artists signed under the state-funded record label.
In the past year, the centre, operating under the leadership of Dr Zoliswa Twani, failed to participate in last year’s Dakawa Jazz Series at the National Arts Festival and the Isingqi Sethu Wild Coast Festival, despite having been actively involved on these boards in the previous years.
Apart from helping artists signed under the label, ECAVC is also mandated to provide support to artists from across the province.
The Daily Dispatch understands that since Twani took over the reins, the project has not done much to help artists in the province.
The centre did not participate in any of the major festivals because of budget issues.
The centre – formerly known as the Miriam Makeba Centre – was established in 2006 through a partnership between the University of Fort Hare and the Eastern Cape department of sport, recreation, arts and culture (DSRAC).
ECAVC is a one-stop audio-visual recording and production centre that embraces film, audio/video production, graphics and photography.
The ECAVC Record Label was launched in 2014 with eight artists and a group signed to it – Gunzo, Afro-soul singer Csana, rock band Shoelace, Chosen, Andile & 1266, Thandokazi, Mboza and Nosiviwe.
Csana and Thandokazi have since asked to be released from their contracts.
There are also allegations doing the rounds that the record label manager, marketing manager, two sound engineers, film officer and a general assistant officer have been asked to pack up by the end of the month.
They were apparently told their posts would be advertised and they would have to reapply.
The Daily Dispatch understands that the vacancies have not been advertised and the staff were told their jobs would no longer be intact on March 31.
While staff refused to talk about their alleged pending departure, one of the artists, Andile Sawule said their exit would bring his pending second album to a standstill.
“We are busy with our last album with the record label and I believe whatever decisions were taken should have been run by us first.
“We are the ones who will be greatly affected by this. Luyolo [the record label manager] and I were already in talks to release my first single in April. When asked by the Dispatch about the allegations, Twani said the matter was in the hands of the human resources department at the University of Fort Hare.
However previous director, Sy Ntuli told the Dispatch that it was the director’s call to motivate to the board to have contracts renewed.
“As a director you have a meeting with your team and you know what each person is doing. When it comes to renewing contracts, I would motivate to the board and we had no issues unless there was an issue with an under-performing employee,” he said. Twani did not to reply to questions about the way forward.
DSRAC communication’s manager Andile Nduna said: “As the department, our involvement with ECAVC is ensuring artist development guided by the MoU (memorandum of understanding) we co-signed with the University of Fort Hare.”
This was why DSRAC was injecting R2.5-million annually into ECAVC.
“We have been made aware of the staff contractual matters which we are confident that the institution is well able to resolve expediently.” —