Bat Centre at risk of closing

DIFFERENT spheres of government would have to intervene to prevent a popular Durban art centre from collapsing because of a lack of funding, DA MP Phumzile van Damme said.

Van Damme was speaking during a visit to the Bat Centre, a community arts development and cultural entertainment centre located within the Small Craft Harbour off Durban’s Victoria Embankment. It has for years been seen as the home of jazz artists such as the late legendary guitarist Sipho Gumede and singer Busi Mhlongo.

Van Damme was in the province on the DA’s election campaign trail.

Bat Centre financial manager Vusi Ntuli told Van Damme: “Many programmes that we have been running had to be closed because we are running out of money for them.

“We had been running a Sunday jazz event, which aimed at promoting amateur artists, for the past 15 years, but it had to stop last year because we did not receive funding from Durban.

“The biggest challenge is that we don’t receive enough funding to run operations of the centre,” said Ntuli.

He said the centre was working with up-and-coming artists from KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

“The lack of funding is threatening the future of young people who did not qualify to study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Durban University of Technology. We train these young people for a few months, then after that these universities are able to enrol them for a degree,” said Ntuli.

Van Damme said she would raise the issue of the Bat Centre and similar art centres across the country in the National Assembly.

“The municipality is instead focusing on a record deal with former president Jacob Zuma, who is more than welcome to record an album and market it if he so wishes. But he must do so on his own – the people’s money must not be used to further him as a musician as there are hundreds of young people who need that support,” said Van Damme.

She was responding to reports that eThekwini Municipality’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Department would be funding Zuma to work with popular artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo to record an album of his Struggle songs.

Van Damme said while she would raise the issue in the National Assembly, her KwaZulu-Natal counterpart, Hlanganani Gumbi, would raise it in the provincial legislature.

The party’s caucus leader at eThekwini Municipality, Councillor Nicole Graham, would fight for the centre at council level.

Graham said by funding Zuma’s album recording, the municipality was abandoning its duty of assisting disadvantaged artists.

“It would be a travesty for the Bat Centre to be closed because of financial challenges. It is also a great injustice that would frustrate young artists,” she said.

The municipality’s head of Parks, Recreation and Culture Department, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said the municipality stopped funding the Bat Centre and 17 other similar institutions after their contracts ended last year.

“Right now we are in the process of renewing those contracts, which will resume in July – at the beginning of the new financial year,” he said.