The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls for the state-owned entities (SOE) under the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture to be drastically reduced following an increase of R160 million in fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure at these entities.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has around 25 entities that are currently reporting to it. These include the, National Arts Council, National Library of South Africa, National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), the Market Theatre Foundation, and Robben Island Museum, to name but a few.
Shockingly, only 9 out of the Department’s 25 entities managed to receive unqualified audits without any findings. This points to the fact that many of these entities are completely of no use and some of them duplicate functions that are already performed by other entities under the Department’s jurisdiction.
South African sports are hamstrung by what seems to be a chronic lack of funding. This while meaningless SOEs are misappropriating money without a shred of accountability.
It is for this very reason that the DA proposes for the entities under the Department be reduced to 8 to free up much need funding for sports development and to reduce the duplication and mismanagement.
The board of Gauteng theatre, for an example, performs the same function as the board of KwaZulu-Natal theatre. This duplication is completely unnecessary and is part of the reason why these entities reporting to the department are failing to account.
We must therefore consolidate all museums in South Africa under one entity, and the same with art galleries, theatres, etc.
There is a need for effective consequence management at the Department, in order to put an end to wasteful expenditure, corruption, maladministration and breakdown of governance in many of these entities.
The DA will be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Sports, Arts and Culture, Ms Beauty Dlulane, to request that the Department reports back on the state of its finances and the finances of its entities on a monthly basis in order to ensure that the financial health is restored.
Ultimately, the financial mismanagement and breakdown in governance at the Department’s entities will continue unabated because the Department is simply incapable and under capacitated to fully perform oversight over its SOEs – which makes a reduction all the more important.
The Democratic Alliance will keep a close eye on these developments, we will continue to hold the department accountable so at to ensure that it does not fail to deliver on its important mandate of developing and preserving South African culture to ensure social cohesion and nation-building.