Canaan Mdletshe

Canaan Mdletshe

The eThekwini municipality has been accused of snubbing the 3rd annual South African Traditional Music Awards (Satma) held at the weekend.

Annoyed founder Duminsani Goba lambasted the municipality for turning its back on the event.

"They failed to support us. They did not even turn up."

The Satmas were held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban on Saturday night. Among the guests were ANC president Jacob Zuma, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Premier S'bu Ndebele, arts, culture and tourism MEC Weziwe Thusi, and sport and recreation MEC Amichand Rajbansi.

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of American human right's activist Malcolm X, also attended.

An emotional Goba said: "It pains me to see people we respect looking down at you when you talk about traditional music. We don't get enough support from the provincial government, but the eThekwini municipality is worse.

"We needed money to stage the event. We went to them for sponsorship, they did nothing. In the end the province helped us and we are grateful. I would like to beg them to change their attitude towards this event."

eThekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe said: "I would like to believe that they were funded by the provincial government and it would certainly not make sense for us to fund them as well. We can't fund events where national or provincial governments are involved. But we did fund them last year.

"In this year's event, we paid them R185000 for venue hire and also gave them all the necessary logistical support, including our metro police who are paid for working overtime."