Senior members of staff at the Market Theatre in Newtown, Johannesburg, have accused the Department of Arts and Culture of mismanagement after the department failed to replace the theatre’s governing body.
The tenure of the council that oversees the running of the theatre expired at the end of December, and no replacement has been appointed at what is considered the country’s premier live-performance venue.
The council is appointed by Minister Pallo Jordan. The last oversight body sat for three years after the minister extended its tenure.
This week council members and senior staff members approached the Mail & Guardian to sound the alarm. The severity of the situation had increased, they said, since the resignation of the theatre’s CEO, Sibongiseni Mkhize.
Worried ex-council members and staff now fear a management vacuum from the beginning of March, when Mkhize takes up his new position as chief director of cultural affairs for Gauteng.
Their plight is complicated by the fact that the Market Theatre cannot appoint a new managing director without council sanction.
Jordan is due to present the names of new council members to Cabinet, which will reconvene after President Thabo Mbeki’s state of the nation address.
A past council member, who does not want to be named, said no one had overseen the governance of the theatre since the beginning of the year.
Mkhize said this week: ‘I am not sure whether we are operating illegally, but it is a very serious matter. It is nearing the end of the financial year and this is not the right time not to have a council.
‘In terms of strategic issues and policy matters, we cannot take big decisions.â€
Mkhize said he gave the department of arts and culture ‘enough notice†before resigning.
Approached for comment, the department’s deputy director general, Sydney Selepe, who is responsible for the running of playhouses, said: ‘There is no crisis. The Market Theatre has a senior management with an artistic director, a CEO and a chief financial officer. So one of the two remaining will be appointed to act.â€
Concerned individuals who have previously served on the council said handing over power to individuals instead of committees was not recommended practice.
Selepe said that other venues in similar situations were Artscape in Cape Town, Windybrow in Johannesburg, the State Theatre in Pretoria and the Sand du Plessis Theatre in Bloemfontein.
At these venues, though, CEOs would be given executive powers to act on behalf of councils.
Selepe said: ‘People want to create a storm out of nothing.â€