Crime draws artist’s ire
ON THE brink of bankruptcy, famed political cartoonist, artist, and founder of the Centre for Fine Arts Animation and Design (CFAD) Nanda Soobben has suffered another blow.
He had his fifth brush with criminals on Friday after two men accosted him while he was talking on his cellphone outside his school in Walnut Road, in the Durban CBD.
“I was on a call, and the next thing I noticed was two men standing next to me. They said two sentences, ‘We are armed’, and ‘We want your phone’,” he said.
“I did not want to cause a commotion, or endanger the lives of my staff and students who were inside, so I handed over the phone, and watched as they jumped into a waiting vehicle and sped off.”
Soobben said the latest incident brought back bad memories of several burglaries at the school’s old premises in Berea over the past two years.
“The school was robbed of 16 Apple Macs and the server, and we were not able to do our financial report for the year, or provide a student database, to the Department of Higher Education and Training, who then suspended our accreditation,” he said of the major theft last year.
Soobben said they had set up a new database and sent an appeal to the department, and were reinstated. However, accreditation was suspended again due to not submitting a health and safety report.
“We were in a crime-plagued area, and were moving in a hurry, but we got the report done and sent it within the specified time.”
Since the suspension, Soobben has had to sell two vehicles to continue keeping the school doors open, but is quickly running out of financial resources.
“They say the appeal is pending but we are still suspended. We had to put all our new students on hold. In addition, the R2 million in SETA student bursary funds promised to CFAD never arrived,” he said. “We have an education crisis in this country and we are being stifled.”
Despite his challenges, Soobben is confident things will work out.
“I have a strong support structure, with many former students returning to teach at no cost. Although we were asked to close our doors, we cannot, there is to much of talent that cannot be wasted. Students are studying for free as we cannot accept fees.”
On his latest brush with criminals, Soobben said: “The crime has escalated in this country, and it’s seeming more organised and dangerous.”