Why was the jazz festival cancelled?

Whenever something is said, there is the narrative and then there is the real story.

Whenever decisions are made there are always unintended consequences, collateral damage, hidden motives and agendas.

Last Sunday, the Jazz Festival to be held at Mlungisi Stadium was abruptly cancelled hours before it was supposed to start.

This would have been the first such festival since the Covid-19 pandemic, when artists who relied on gigs and such festivals to make a living had been left stranded.

An opportunity to revive this event was cancelled for reasons the organisers are refusing to reveal, publicly.

The organisers were the department of sport, recreation art and culture (DSRAC) and, to a lesser extent, the Chris Hani District Municipality. The mission of DSRAC is: “To develop and promote sport, recreation, arts and culture for spiritual, intellectual, physical and material upliftment of the people of the Eastern Cape.”

I feel this is important to state before all the noise and emotions drown out the facts.

I have been told by a few people what really happened.

I saw on social media some people voicing t their opposition to the hosting of this festival as there are no roads in Komani and so forth so why “waste” money on festivals instead of fixing these things. But what do roads and infrastructure of Komani have to do with the organisers?

There are musicians who have had no work for two years who have now lost out.

Think about the hawkers who had already bought stock to sell on Sunday and the fans who had already travelled to Komani.

What will this campaign to cancel the festival help Komani to get their roads fixed? How does DSRAC fix roads when their mandate has nothing to do with that?

How does a district municipality fix roads when you have a local municipality charged with this?

So when the infrastructure is collapsing the people must stay at home and not entertain themselves until these problems are fixed?

Must life come to a standstill because the local municipality has bungled their projects?

And were the reasons put forward for the opposition to the jazz festival taking place, the real reasons? Has the public been told the whole truth behind the campaign to cancel the festival?

What if DSRAC simply diverts the money allocated to be spent in Komani to another district? Has anyone thought about that?

I believe we are not being told the full story, so let me park it there.