Hazel Friedman
DDAY has long passed for the release of=20 the final list of names for South Africa’s=20 National Arts Council (NAC), the=20 government-funded, independent arts council=20 established to serve as a statutory body=20 for the allocation of funds to deserving=20 cultural projects.=20
And while the art world waits with bated=20 breath for the names, the Department of=20 Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and=20 the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and=20 Technology are already engaged in battle.=20 And the NAC hasn’t even got off ground=20 level yet.
After weeks of delays in the planned=20 release of the NAC names, ministry media=20 spokesperson Frans Basson sent word to the=20 Mail & Guardian on December 19 that the=20 “minister would make an announcement on the=20 NAC after the next meeting of the Cabinet=20 on January 22 1997”.=20
He explained that the delay had been caused=20 by Minister Lionel Mtshali’s trip to India,=20 as part of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s=20 delegation in December last year.=20
The official line from both sides is “No=20 comment.” But informed sources report that=20 the department and the ministry have been=20 squabbling over numbers. Mtshali wants the=20 final 18 names, chosen after public=20 interviews, to be cut down to 11, excluding=20 an additional nine candidates nominated by=20 provincial MECs for culture.=20
The department, say the sources, wants 14=20 names selected. The only number they might=20 have agreed on is the date on which the=20 names will be released: February 3, to=20 coincide with the launch of a new=20 business/arts initiative called Basa=20 (Business Arts South Africa).=20
But Basson refuses to either confirm or=20 deny that the announcement will take place.
There are also rumblings of discontent in=20 official art circles over a “sweetheart=20 deal” forged between the department and the=20 Foundation for the Creative Arts (FCA), the=20 discredited arts body created by FW de=20 Klerk in 1988. With the establishment of=20 the National arts Coalition in 1992 the FCA=20 – still perceived by many as the covert=20 intelligence wing of the cultural old-guard=20 – was destined to join the scrapheap of=20 history.=20
That is, until Christopher Till, former=20 Director of Culture for Johannesburg,=20 brokered a deal with the coalition to=20 absorb the FCA’s infrastructure into the=20 coalition.=20
The Government’s White Paper on Art and=20 Culture ratified this plan amid protests=20 from concerned cultural activists. Now,=20 insiders say, there is concern that=20 continuity, not transformation, will be the=20 name of the NAC game.=20
But the ministry denies that the NAC will=20 simply become the old FCA dressed in new=20 garb. It insists that the absorption=20 process will be strictly of an=20 “administrative” nature.
Despite repeated requests for comment,=20 director general of the Department of Arts,=20 Culture, Science and Technology Roger=20 Jardine had not returned the M&G’s calls at=20 the time of going to press.