CONCERNS OVER BUDGET FOR ARTS

MBABANE - “Will it ever get better for us?”

This question has been popular among conversations between local entertainers concerning the current situation as many are unable to generate income due to strict regulations prohibiting mass gatherings in a bid to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Local artists have come out to grumble over the fact that they feel unimportant and this according to them, is a reflection on the budget allocated to the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg in his maiden E24 billion national budget for the 2021/22 financial year on Friday in parliament. 

The minister made it clear that the country was facing an unprecedented economic crisis due to the pandemic among other factors therefore; a tighter budget would be made available until the situation normalises. 

 Entertainment

“Entertainment is necessary for everyone, and anyone who says otherwise is ignorant. It might not seem apparent, but entertainment plays a very big role in ensuring that people live normal and happy lives and ,therefore, the, arts industry should be on-top of any country’s budget and the figures must make sense “said M-forty, a local artist.  In collective messages local artists shared on their social media accounts, one common factor was the fact that the local government seemed not to see the value of the entertainment industry in the country and this leads to the sector being considered last when it’s time for funds allocation. “The entertainment industry is one of the largest employers. From the street magician to the galaxy of stars we see on TV, they are all earning a living because of entertainment. It also plays a major role in fostering the economy in that a lot of tax is collected from the industry. This is one of the top reasons as to why it should be supported and allowed to thrive,” said industry pioneer and stable owner, Khulekani ‘Karly B’ Mamba. 

Mamba further said artists are deprived of other possible alternative income streams through royalties as government continues to delay the implementation of the copyright bill. “This all shows that the industry is indeed on its own, as we speak, artists have remained without income for almost a year now and government has not even bothered to engage on our well-being,” he said. 

allocation

When the budget speech for the 2019/2020 financial year was delivered, the allocation for Arts and Culture dropped from E4.2 million to E3.3 million. Independent calculations by the Entertainment Desk reflected that this drop was 21.4 per cent.  The council is under the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs. In fact, the only time when ENCAC received an increment was in 2016 where the budget was increased from E2 313 360 to E3 313 360. 

Since then, there has been no increase much to the detriment of artists due to the fact that this hinders on the implementation of crucial which activities by the ENCAC that could possibly improve the local arts industry. 

projects

Examples of such projects include, but not limited to, artists relief funds taking into consideration that the pandemic has caused major financial constraints in the entertainment industry, provision of sufficient funding to host beauty pageants that align with international standards, bolstering the choral music industry and empowering musicians through offering more workshops and interactive sessions. 

The ENCAC has affiliates which directly benefit from the tranches of money given to the council by government. These are Swaziland Arts and Music Association (SWAMA), Swaziland National Choral Music Association (SNCMA) and the Association of Christian Artists in Eswatini (ACAESWA) among others.

ENCAC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stanley Dlamini, said even though government remains committed to development of the arts industry, he was fully cognisant of the current fiscal challenges.

“It could have been better, but with the current fiscal challenges, the allocation was the best they could give under the circumstances,” Dlamini acknowledged. 

Dlamini further stated that they had no choice but to align their projects with the allocated budget and hope that partnering with the private sector would yield positive results. He mentioned that they did not have much expectations for an increased budget. Therefore, none of their planned projects would be affected. 

On the other hand, ACAESWA PRO Nhlanhla Mathunjwa said “we would like to thank government for considering the art sector yet again. Although we were expecting more money because the art sector has been one of the industries that have suffered harshly due to the pandemic, as an association, we are currently working on programmes that will help local artists cope and we hope we will be able to work together and use available funds for the betterment of our creatives.” 

asserted

Meanwhile, Economist Thembinkosi  Dube, asserted that this was bad news for the arts sector. He said the decrease in the allocation of this year’s budget towards the sector meant more woes for the populace who are directly dependant on it. He further added that this included the artists and other people working in the entertainment sector who now had no income as of last year when COVID-19 restrictions were first implemented. “Analyst all over the world have predicted that the damage done by the COVID-19 pandemic towards the economy would not be fixed overnight. They have predicted that it will take the economy seven years to restabilise,” he said.

Much like locally, he mentioned that artists would have to focus on making other means of sourcing income as the budget was just not sufficient enough to help financially.

He went on to say that since many in the arts sector were affected, one would expect that government would have increased the budget, but due to the economy being crippled by the prevailing pandemic, he asserted it would be yet another tough year for the sector.

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