Thousands of jobs at risk as arts funds dry up

FROM Cape Town to Makhanda and Potchefstroom to Bloemfontein, the curtain is falling on South Africa’s biggest arts festivals as government funding is withdrawn.

- BRANDON NEL

The blow hits flagship events including Oudtshoorn’s Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Makhanda’s National Arts Festival and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Aardklop in Potchefstroom, the Cape Town Carnival, Innibos in Mpumalanga and Vryfees in the Free State were also affected.

The festivals are the lifeblood of South Africa’s cultural stage, generating millions of rand in revenue, putting food on the tables of hundreds of artists and technicians, and drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year.

And now, with funding cut, livelihoods are at risk, and events that have long shaped the national cultural calendar face the closing act.

The funding crisis began when festival organisers were told, one after another, that their existing funding had been declined and that they should apply for support through the Maansi Golden Economy (MGE) Fund.