Hazel Friedman investigates what’s behind a=20 bitter battle in Gauteng’s arts council
Members of the board at Pact (Performing=20 Arts Council of the Transvaal) are=20 embroiled in a bitter battle over=20 allegations of mismanagement. On one side=20 are Pact CEO Alan Joseph and Pact chairman=20 John Kani, with board members Meredie=20 Wixley and Arlette Franks on the other.
The disagreement revolves around=20 accusations of gender discrimination and=20 questions about Pact’s secret trust funds,=20 levelled by the two board members at Joseph=20 and Kani, who have in turn accused Wixley=20 and Franks of troublemaking. Documents held=20 by the Mail & Guardian indicate Kani and=20 Joseph have attempted to remove the women=20 from the board.
The fight has become so severe that the=20 national Ministry has asked the Pretoria- based Department of Arts, Culture Science=20 and Technology (DACST) to step in. An=20 advisory panel has been set up to examine=20 the conflict and its findings are expected=20 to be made known soon.
The documents also allege Kani has not=20 convened a single Pact executive committee=20 meeting since October 1996. The recent=20 establishment of a new Pact endowment fund,=20 introduced by Joseph in June alongside the=20 Pact budget for 1997/98, is also=20 highlighted. To date there are no details=20 regarding the means by which the fund will=20 administered.=20
Meanwhile, in letters sent to the ministry=20 and DACST, Franks and Wixley question the=20 fact that an employee from Deloitte and=20 Touche, the firm of auditors employed by=20 Pact when the secret trust funds were=20 established, is now Pact’s financial=20 manager.=20
Not far behind looms the spectre of these=20 controversial trust funds set up by Pact’s=20 old guard, which was exposed by the M&G in=20 February 1996. The Pact Employees Fund,=20 established in May 1995 and a Pact Senior=20 Managers Fund, set up in August 1993, were=20 revealed by members of Pact’s new board=20 soon after they took office in November=20 1995.=20
The source of the money for these trust=20 funds remains a mystery as it was never=20 reflected in Pact’s financial records.=20 Apart from the department heads whose=20 contracts were amended in accordance with=20 the provisions made by the funds, no other=20 Pact staffers knew of their existence until=20 they were uncovered almost a year after=20 they were created.=20
In 1996 DACST called for an audit of all=20 Pact’s books, but according to an employee=20 at the firm of auditors, “delays” have=20 hampered the investigation. At a recent=20 board meeting, deputy chairman Sam Moss=20 declared the investigation sub judice.=20
Wixley and Franks have refused to comment=20 on this matter.
Moss has since come out against Franks and=20 Wixley’s attempts to victimise Joseph and=20 “hijack” the future of culture in South=20 Africa. Joseph has refused to comment on=20 the matter, saying it is out of his hands.=20 Kani says that he has been away for two=20 months and is therefore out of touch with=20 recent developments in the conflict.
At the time of going to press, the ministry=20 had not responded to a fax sent to it by=20 the M&G.