Lack of funding is behind last week=D5s resignations at Pact, reports Barba=
THE arts community cheered in May when the Minister of Arts and=20 Culture saved the Market Theatre with a R3-million grant. On Friday last=20 week, Pact=D5s chairman and chief executive officer resigned, and five head=
of department announced they would follow. The events are connected. In April, the ministry cut the R121,7-million=20 budget for the four performing arts councils by 15 percent and re-directed=
the money to community arts groups and the Market Theatre. =20 Pact=D5s budget, a large share of the total, was shrunk from R49,6-million =
CEO Louis Bezuidenhout handed in his resignation last week apparently=20 because Pact had run into deficit =D1 and he could see no way out. Last week was not the first time Bezuidenhout had tried to resign, but each=
time the ministry had persuaded him to stay on as a caretaker, at least unt=
the end of September, when new boards are appointed for the four=20 performing arts councils.=20 A major issue, according to Arts and Culture sources, was a decision taken=
last week at a meeting of the nine cultural MECs and the minister to=20 declare a moratorium on all performing arts council hiring and firing until=
the new boards were in place. Last month=D5s appointment of deputy CEO=20 Hugh Masekela was to be the last until then =D1 and no one could be fired o=
=D2When I came in,=D3 Masekela said this week, =D2I asked (Bezuidenhout) no= t to=20 resign. We had a great relationship. And I came here on an agreement that I=
wouldn=D5t be involved in administration. There is enough competent=20 administration here. =D2But he was always worried about the budget. That was his main=20 obsession. I=D5m sorry he didn=D5t tell me before he did it. I came back fr=
London this week and he had gone.=D3 In his place was Eghard van der Hoven, a former Pact CEO, brought out of=20 retirement as the next caretaker. Sam Moss, deputy chairman, will be=20 acting chairman until the new board takes over. And according to the ministry, three of the five heads of department who=20 threatened to resign changed their minds on Monday after a meeting with=20 the minister. Arts and Culture Minister Ben Ngubane said in a statement this week that=20 he would =D2not allow the situation at Pact to degenerate=D3. He had applie= d for=20 money to tide Pact over, but it could not be obtained from the government=
at =D2such short notice=D3 =D1 apparently 24 hours.=20 The ministry, said Ngubane, will =D2support Pact=D5s programme until the en=
of the financial year and will ensure that the financial difficulties the=
organisation is curently facing will be addressed and resolved=D3. Masekela, meanwhile, is pretty much ignoring the furore. =D2We just have to=
make Pact work,=D3 he said. =D2In the end, that=D5s everybody=D5s job. Pact= is=20 supposed to serve the entire community. It=D5s potentially a very powerful=
forum. The future of this place is more important than individuals.=D3