The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) has asked Parliament’s portfolio committee on arts and culture urgently to intervene in its increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the Department of Arts and Culture.
The call was made by NFVF CEO Eddie Mbalo during what portfolio committee members described as an extraordinarily angry presentation of the foundation’s annual report.
The NFVF is a statutory body created to develop the South African film and television industry. Its budget had been cut by R12-million, Mbaso said, cutting off the crucial feature film fund, and efforts to get sign-off from the department on a business plan and service level agreement aimed at tightening up accountability and performance had come to naught.
Mbalo told the committee that this was deliberately intended to undermine his organisation, as the arts department had gone even further to discourage the Department of Trade and Industry — which recently introduced a film incentive — from entering into a service level agreement with the foundation.
”The NFVF has acted in a manner that demonstrates goodwill and faith, but department has not reciprocated. The council of the NFVF pleads with the portfolio committee to call the department to explain the reasons for the withdrawal of the feature film fund and how the department will rectify the untenable situation.”
The extent to which the relationship had broken down became apparent when, at the end of July, the NFVF issued a communiquÃ