By Unathi Malunga, Board Member at Business and Arts South Africa
South African corporates are still reaching for the same inherited templates: the gala dinner, the heritage month sponsorship, the once-off art competition. The end-of-year artist showcase or awards dinner – with no mentorship, funding, or follow-through for the creatives being celebrated. Donating airtime” or “exposure” as value – rather than offering structural investment in production, marketing, or IP ownership. The branded concert where the artist’s name is smaller than the sponsor’s. The visual artist residency that ends with a wine-and-cheese showcase, but offers no post-residency support, no connection to markets, no IP ownership, and no long-term growth plan. The social media campaign during culture week, quickly forgotten by month’s end. Polished, packaged, repeatable. These formulas are neat, familiar, and easy to execute – but in a global economy that is shifting fast – these old models are not just outdated. They risk rendering our creative economy invisible at the very moment the world is paying attention. We must acknowledge that many of today’s corporate leaders are often implementing systems they did not design, but inherited – passed down from a different era of business thinking. However, the future will not wait for those systems to evolve organically. If we want new results, we need new models – built with the world we live in now, not the one we left behind.
The reality is this: today’s marketplace is not shaped by standardised CSR projects. It is shaped by innovation, experience, cultural capital, and story. Business leaders can no longer afford to plug into the arts as if it were 1995. The world has changed. The value chain has changed. The way creativity drives economies has changed. But too often, corporate approaches to creative partnership have not.
It’s time to stop performing investment and start doing it. Thoughtfully. Strategically. And with vision.
This is not an attack on corporate South Africa. It is an invitation to leadership.
We have seen the power of partnership. When done right, creative economy investment delivers return, relevance, and impact. But we must move beyond symbolic sponsorships and toward long-term, shared-value engagement.
What does that look like?
* Equity-based models where artists retain IP and revenue share.
* Multi-year partnerships that allow creative enterprises to plan, grow, and scale.
* Internal innovation labs where creatives collaborate directly with brand and product teams.
* Funding that supports skills development and local production ecosystems – not just events.
* Co-created campaigns rooted in authentic community insight and cultural intelligence.
South Africa’s artists and creatives are shaping global narratives. But the corporate sector is still treating the arts as a brand add-on rather than a core growth sector. The same CSI models are being regurgitated year after year, with no structural impact, no long-term vision, and no systemic empowerment.
We need business to come to the table not with templates, but with imagination. With risk appetite. With co-creation. We need business to recognise the arts not as charity, but as a high-growth, high-impact investment category.
This is where BASA comes in. As a partnership catalyst, BASA builds bridges between business, government, and the arts. And this is what BASA is advocating for: a new generation of creative economy partnerships that break the mould and build the future. Our creative professionals are driving visibility for the nation far beyond traditional exports. But we remain structurally disconnected from this value. While the world competes to invest in imagination, South Africa still sidelines it.
The answer lies in ecosystem thinking – not in one-off events, logo placement, or window-dressing sponsorships. Our work is grounded in real systems change: through the Ampersand Strategy, the Supporting Grants, and bespoke cross-sector initiatives, we are not just funding projects – we are co-creating platforms for scalable, sustainable, and future-focused collaboration.
We treat the arts as charity. As symbolic. As “nice to have.” And in doing so, we lose the global leverage our creators are already earning. We must stop treating the arts, cultural and creative industries as events to sponsor and start treating them as industries to finance. That requires a complete mindset shift: from transactional branding to deep, long-term collaboration. We need infrastructure, not just visibility. IP equity, not just photo ops. If South Africa wants to compete in a world led by perception, aesthetics, and identity, then we must invest accordingly. We need to rethink what meaningful partnership looks like – because the world is moving, and South Africa cannot afford to be left behind.
Our call to business is simple: shift from sponsorship to strategy. To those businesses already pioneering innovative, equity-based partnerships – we see you, and we thank you. You are setting the pace for a new kind of economy. But to those still relying on inherited templates: this is your opportunity to shift. To stop performing investment and start engaging meaningfully. BASA is here to support that evolution – with tools, models, and partnerships that match the realities of today’s marketplace.
Cultural production is not decoration – it is direction. It is not ornamental, symbolic, or seasonal – it is foundational. The arts drive employment, reputation, policy influence, and economic inclusion. They are not the aesthetic afterthought once attached to branding exercises or seasonal campaigns. South Africa’s creative economy should not be an afterthought. It is a competitive advantage waiting to be activated – with the right systems, the right partnerships, and the right mindset. It is how nations define themselves, compete globally, and build economic resilience. In today’s world, the creative sector does not merely soften the edge of a strategy – it sharpens it, accelerates it, and amplifies its relevance across industries. Culture is not a side story – it is the operating system of influence, value, and collective identity. It is where diplomacy, trade, technology, and storytelling converge. Culture is not only nation-building – it is future-building.
And if we keep funding the past, we will lose the future.
