It was to be the biggest post-apartheid era arts scandal since the investment of millions of rands in a scam that led to the temporary closure of the State Theatre in Pretoria and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
“The nation will begin to understand that this board … is the best thing to happen to the National Arts Council (NAC) because there is no corporate governance whatsoever,” thundered the chairperson of the NAC board, Dr Gomolemo Mokae, on national radio.
This was a week after the board had voted to suspend three of its senior staff on allegations of financial irregularities, abuse of power and lack of financial accountability in November last year.
Just why we should be so grateful to the new board began to be leaked to the media. “Bosses accused of corruption”, screamed one newspaper headline. Accusations of theft were levelled against Andre le Roux, who “will most definitely face criminal charges of entering and removing [NAC] property”, said a source who, according to Sunday World of February 15, “chose to remain anonymous”.
Deputy chairperson of the NAC, advocate Mark Gordon, declared to the Sunday Sun that “initial findings of the audit reveal [Doreen] Nteta [CEO of the NAC] used the cheques to withdraw money from the bank in order to pay for personal overseas trips.”
We were to be eternally grateful to the NAC board for uncovering “secret bank accounts”.
The allegations sent shockwaves through the arts community. Everyone in the sector knew that if you wanted to send someone for training in efficient administration, sound management and good corporate governance, the NAC would not be top of the list. But fraud? Corruption? Theft? That was a bit harder to swallow.
The shockwaves reverberated internationally because the suspended CEO was also the vice-chairperson of the world’s association of arts councils.
In response to her suspension, Nteta told The Star: “They [the board] have been looking for a way to get rid of me. I am standing between them and the cookie jar.”
But Mokae countered on radio: “Those journalists from The Star, from the Independent Group, on Sunday they won’t be having egg for their breakfast, they’ll be having egg on their faces when they see how their icons have been misgoverning the NAC.”
And he promised last year: “We are going to have the last laugh.”
So we waited to see who would have the last laugh. For 10 months we waited to see who would land up with egg on their faces. And last week there was the Sunday Independent informing us that the disciplinary hearing against the three had been concluded and that all charges against Le Roux had been withdrawn. Nteta and Kirin Isvarlal, the chief financial officer, were found guilty of one charge, for which it was recommended that they be given a written warning.
So is this what we have to thank the board for? For doing irreparable damage to the integrity of individuals and to the credibility of the NAC, and for wasting huge amounts of resources to achieve a nebulous outcome?
What went wrong? Perhaps we should blame the racist media? Or bitter and twisted individuals who were not appointed to the NAC board. Or whistle-blowers. For we all know, they are at the root of all that goes wrong in the arts sector.
So what was it all about? Was it about getting rid of individuals who stood in the way of “the cookie jar”?
I would not be surprised to learn that the really serious acts of abuse of power, financial irregularities, contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act and of the Labour Relations Act, and of corporate misgov- ernance have taken place since the suspension of the three members of management.
And, as history has shown us in this sector, these will be great recommendations for the guilty parties who will be protected and later promoted to other boards, while the whistle-blowers will be investigated and removed. For such is the track record of the department charged with coordinating the moral regeneration of the country.