‘Exploited’ artists march on City Hall
NEARLY 50 artists from around Nelson Mandela Bay marched to the City Hall yesterday to hand over a memorandum of grievances as part of the Arts in Economic Growth March.
The march included artists from a wide spectrum, including dance, film, music, visual art, fashion and literature.
A memorandum was handed to Bay speaker Jonathan Lawack, who signed it and promised to hand it over to mayor Athol Trollip and mayoral council member for sport, recreation, arts and culture, Siyasanga Sijadu.
Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Council acting chairman Martin Pram said artists in the Bay felt highly exploited.
They were there to engage in talks with the municipality to adopt the Creative Economic Programme and Investment Strategy that talks about programmes instead of now and then events, he said.
“There must be equal opportunities, equal distribution of resources. Since 2014 we have been calling on the municipality to tell us what the annual budget for arts is, because we don’t know,” Pram said.
He said artists had the potential to draw people to the city.
Popular New Brighton saxophonist Lefa Mosea said the march had been a long time coming.
“This has been brewing for a good eight years. Maybe this time, the municipality will pay attention and listen to us.”
Mongezi Ncwadi, who read out the memorandum, said their demands included being part of the standing committee meetings for sport, recreation, arts and culture and that no industry-related project should be adopted by the metro without the involvement and consultation of the Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Council.
The artists gave the municipality until June 15 to respond to their grievances.