Art wit or art twit?

I wrote to the Mail & Guardian two weeks ago to respond to numerous articles that Mike van Graan had written against the Department of Arts and Culture, the minister and the director general.

My article appeared as an edited letter to the editor. The self-appointed “god” of the arts, Van Graan, then had the unfair advantage of responding to my whole article, including unpublished parts of it. I find this unethical.

I believe the public is being lied to by a frustrated former “heir apparent” uncomfortable with African leadership. My key purpose is to attempt to close this one-sided and hostile gap that has poisoned the atmosphere in the arts and culture industry.

Firstly, the president has drawn attention to the critical role that the arts and culture need to play in the nation-building project and especially in helping to create the much-needed social cohesion in a country whose past is as ugly as South Africa’s. This role goes well beyond the narrow terms in which Van Graan understands and critiques the department.

Secondly, he deliberately misleads the public by distorting the relationship between the arts and culture-associated institutions and the department. These are autonomous institutions, but Van Graan ascribes their challenges and difficulties to my failure to manage. This is like blaming the director general of the Department of Education for the mismanagement in a particular university.

Thirdly, he blatantly lies about audit committee meetings happening without my attending. The facts are palpably different.

I have gone out of my way to establish the validity of some of his claims and have found none. Clearly Van Graan is using his column to fight his personal agendas. It is also clear that he has never forgiven a former minister for not renewing his contract, though he denies this. His bitterness also emanates from there being greater control over repeat beneficiaries for funding. His is the case of a small number of people who in the past were spoilt by the way they kept obtaining funds for their projects.

The department is headed by proud, educated Africans with formidable intellects. I think it is unacceptable to provide space for microwave journalists and pseudo-commentators who live only to attack the government for no apparent reason.

Itumeleng Mosala is the Director General of the Department of Arts and Culture