It has come to the attention of the Board of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) that an article by Botho Molosankwe (an editor for the Star Newspaper), has been published and reports that BASA has been paid a sum of R9.9 million for assisting the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) with payments of COVID-19 relief grants to artists.
The details pertaining to the agreement between SACR and BASA, as published, are factually incorrect. The BASA Board can confirm that an agreement was entered into with SACR in October 2020, whereby BASA was appointed to serve as a payments agency at an agreed standard rate of 10% of funds disbursed. It is noted with deep concern that BASA was not contacted prior to publication of this article for verification of the facts. Since inception, BASA has enjoyed an unqualified audit every year and, as these are public funds, our books are available for scrutiny with regard to this project.
As a registered nonprofit organisation, to date BASA has disbursed in excess of R41 million to over 1 680 projects, which in turn have leveraged over R537 million in sponsorship from the business sector – that equates to R13m of corporate support for every R1m of BASA grant funding. In response to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic, BASA supported nearly 170 individual artists through grants valued at more than R1,5 million. Over and above its own funding to artists BASA has assisted local and national government with disbursing payments of over R50 million to thousands more creatives.
Enquiries:
BASA CEO: Ashraf Johaardien
Mobile: 063 669 6281
E-mail: rochelle@basa.co.za