The Sibikwa Arts centre members along with the parents, learners and the stakeholders of the facility, led by the artistic director of the centre, Felis Clots, , delivered a petition to the Ekurhuleni Head Office in Germiston.
The Sibikwa Arts centre is based in Benoni (Actonville) and has been operating for 33 years. They have been operating under the ANC led Metro for approximately 25 years. During that period the metro has only assisted them 3 times. The underlying issue is that there’s a granting aid which is not provided to the arts centre as required and the Metro refuses to recognise Sibikwa as an institution and treats it like a project.
They would like the Metro to know that they are not a project, they are an institution and they are credited by CAT and SETA. They are also accredited by the South African Council for Education for all their performance arts, so it doesn’t suite them to be a project.
They mentioned that they want a contract for 5 years. The Metro doesn’t give them 4 million as obligated to run their project each year. They have young creatives that come to them from various areas around the Metro and beyond, so they need to have the support of their municipality. The ANC in its manifesto during the last election said every municipality should have its own art centre, well this is a big metro and there are several art centres which are functioning to a limited degree were else Sibikwa is fully functional and has won awards from the province, yet it is not recognised by its own Metro.
The feedback which they got was that they will still treat them as a project. They were last funded by the Metro in 2018, during that time they were told that they will no longer be funded, however that made them upset, as they previously said that they are not a project. They have people who are employed on permanent basis as it is an accredited institution, so it’s unfair for the metro to fund them for only a year. The Metro has to implement a policy that will positively acknowledge them as an institution.
They have hosted big international conferences at their centre, and they have cemented a partnership with the European Union for Sukama Mzansi conferences and the main objective of the conventions is to raise awareness about the community art centres in South Africa, and it’s a big arts advocacy organisation.
They are positively sure that the mayor won’t come to address their issue. However they have big conferences for Arts & Culture, the Metro decides to send the MMC for Water & Sanitation to open the conferences. They want to establish a partnership with the Metro, they want to be sure that they can plan and provide their skills and services to the residents in the City of Ekurhuleni.
Vusumuzi Makwakwa and Vuyokazi Bam
