Charl Blignaut
The year-long saga around the alleged financial mismanagement involving the board of the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (Pact) has continued to spiral. The Mail & Guardian has learned that the board is currently under investigation by the Public Protector. Also under investigation is Pact’s subsidiary Johannesburg theatre, the Windybrow Centre for the Arts.
The continuing war of words, previously reported in the M&G, involves issues of both inherited and current management as well as financial queries dating back to Pact’s “secret slush fund”, which has now expired and reverted back to Pact. Some believe that the feud is threatening to split the board that is to transform the country’s largest arts council, which is already a monumental task within an organisation with a turbulent history.
Two members of that board – Meredie Wixley and Arlette Franks – are believed responsible for having lodged further complaints and provided documentation outlining “mismanagement, incompetence and a failure to follow procedure” with several accountability authorities, including the Public Protector. The outcome was a renewed investigation into the Pact board, with representatives of the Public Protector, Advocates Pienaar and Zungu, attending board meetings on November 10 and 21 and again on Tuesday this week, at the board’s annual general meeting.
Earlier this year, the matter was taken up by an advisory committee appointed by Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Lionel Mtshali. Although this committee is yet to table a report formally, it is believed that they found no major incompetence on the board.
This does not, however, seem to be the case with the Public Protector’s office, who have increasingly attended meetings and attempted to get to grips with the complex issues bogging down the workings of the board. The Public Protector is believed to have approached minister Mtshali with apparent evidence of maladministration and has chosen to continue the investigation. No response can be elicited from the investigators until they have completed their task, hopefully within the next two weeks.
Approached for comment this week, Director- General of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Roger Jardine said that the department is maintaining agreed upon “arms-length” observer status on the board and will only be able to comment fully when the reports are tabled.
When previously approached for comment on the Pact saga, board co-chair John Kani has denied that the board is in turmoil, but at two board meeting, several members have described the atmosphere as hostile.
But all is not lost. Board members who attended Tuesday’s AGM are said to have come away from that meeting feeling far happier that the board is now resolved to clearing up and assisting the situation.