Qiqa Tobia

Today marks the opening of the second wave of the relief fund for the sports, art and culture sector, as announced yesterday by Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

The minister spoke about the issues that faced the 1st wave of the relief funding for his department due to lockdown regulations. The major difficulty was the closure of many institutions which resulted in applicants not being able to comply with all requirements of the open-call.

The failure to submit required documents, such as, bank statements, tax certificates and proof of cancellation of events.

Other applicants could not access most of the hubs for Industry Training Centre for necessary information to complete open-call applications because of lockdown closure.

He also mentioned the lack of technological preparedness within his office.

“The lack of readiness of the department’s IT system also posed as some challenges and the issues of language was also raised as an area we need to look into,” he said.

The 2nd wave of funding will be a two part structure, the first will be the relief for athletes and all the technical staff in sports and the second will focus on the arts and culture sector.

The sports relief funding process will not differ from the 1st wave.

Applicants will only qualify for refill if they are solely dependent on income from participating in sports competitions and fitness activities.

All applications to be submitted to respective national federation.

The national federation will play a vital role as the first line of screening for assurance and send their recommendations to the department for further processing.

He added that a list of all sports beneficiaries that have received relief during the 1st wave will be posted on various department platforms as part of the transparency required by the newly founded corruption committee.

He said, “Only performance, celebrations, music, festival and events, books and publications and heritage practitioners.”

The maximum funding will be a once off R6600 rand payout.

Durban based artist, Dj N.A.G who has been Djing on vinyls for more than 12 years now does not think this funding is enough nor will it actually reach the artists, if it does.

He said, “Once again the government is doing something and they thing they are helping us from their perspective but they are only making themselves look good.”

N.A.G emphasised that artist have families and with no gigs since March it has been tough and the once off payment of R6600 won’t be enough to see them through.

Picture: timeslive.co.za