Arts Minister Nathi Mthethwa
Images of opera singer Sibongile Mngoma stripped to her bra have shone the light on the ongoing battle between a group of creatives and the department of sport, arts, culture and recreation.
Last week, Mngoma travelled to the department in Pretoria hoping to have an audience with the minister, Nathi Mthethwa, but it was rescheduled at the last minute. She and a small group of artists decided to protest outside of the ministry’s entrance. The police intervened and reportedly dragged her out of the way, ripping her blouse in the process.
In response, the Right2Know Campaign has thrown its weight behind Mngoma’s cause, the core of which is the demand to see Mthethwa resign and the release of a forensic report on the mismanagement of Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme funds.
“The reasons we’re showing solidarity with Sibongile and the artists is that our focus as a campaign is on the right to protest,” said Right2Know member Teboho Mashota. “And we feel that the right to protest was undermined by the police and also the minister.
“We feel that she has been stripped of her dignity. The fact that police stripped [off her clothes] is why we’re calling for an inquiry or an investigation into sexual harassment. As an organisation we feel that she was sexually harassed by the police.”
Mngoma was to have met Mthethwa on Tuesday afternoon. She said she was on the way from Bloemfontein when she received notification that the meeting had been postponed.
“I refused to allow that to happen,” she told the Sowetan. “The cancellation was at the last minute. Now they are harassing us for having this peaceful picket. They have dragged me on the floor, I have bruises.”
The roots of the protest can be traced to a perceived lack of transparency by the department in its report on mismanaged Covid-19 relief funds. Having commissioned a report into the R300-million stimulus assigned to the National Arts Council, Mthethwa presented the findings at the Government Communication and Information System offices at the end of September. He said senior council members had been implicated in the failure to distribute the funds and promised strong legal action.
Many artists remained dissatisfied with his response.
“We live in a country where the government is stealing from its citizens,” Mashota says. “So we want the report to be released, we want to interrogate it, and also comment on the report. So we can’t take their word for it. This is the South Africa government that looted funds for Covid. Funds that were meant for poor people. We are saying let them release the report, let them allow the public to interrogate.”
With venues and live events limited throughout the pandemic, the arts sector is considered one of the hardest hit in South Africa. In September last year, 35 entertainers were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal for blockading the N3 highway. They were protesting against strict lockdown regulations and the subsequent effect on their livelihoods.
At the time of publication, both the department of sport, arts, culture and recreation, and police’s Gauteng spokesperson had yet to respond to requests for comment.
[/membership]