Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane “changed the game” for the South African Roadies Association (Sara) when she acted on its complaints about funding from the department of sports, arts & culture and allegations of a “looting scheme” in the National Arts Council (NAC).

“Hands off” was the message of Sara founder and head Freddie Nyathela at the parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office.

Nyathela is the first witness called in her defence, in an apparent attempt to reflect her successes during her tenure rather than the alleged transgressions she is accused of.

Nyathela said Sara ran accredited courses in technical skills to train black youth to work in the entertainment industry in South Africa and overseas. He lodged complaints with the office of the public protector about the lack of funding from the department to renovate the NPO’s headquarters in Johannesburg and for operational costs.

Under Mkhwebane’s predecessors, he said little was done to help him and the department had allegedly reneged on a settlement agreement.

He said in 2017 he met Mkhwebane. She told him: “I got you.”

“I won’t forget that meeting. It will stay with me for the rest of my life,” he said.

Mkhwebane wrote a report directing remedial action which “vindicated” him. She also upheld a complaint he laid against the NAC, ordering remedial action.

She successfully opposed legal challenges against both reports.

Nyathela said she had “come to the rescue” because Sara could not afford lawyers.

In spite of the public protector's report ordering the implementation of the settlement agreement, which was made an order of court, the department “continued to drag its feet”.

He alleged officials had lied to parliament’s portfolio committee about the implementation of the agreement and he had written to the speaker, but “those officials were not held accountable to this day”.

Sara eventually received the funding after Mkhwebane intervened on its behalf. The renovations, which should have cost about R2m if the funding had been approved when first applied for in 2005, cost R25m but would “never have happened without the public protector”.

He claimed opposition to the renovations funding was rooted in an agenda involving City of Johannesburg officials who wanted the city to take over the building because it was in a strategic position near the Market Theatre.

“We were having black people having a problem with black people owning land in Newtown. I told them not to come with apartheid laws and Group Areas Act.”

He said he had evidence that under the NAC’s expanded projects and policy to dispose of surplus funds officials submitted applications on behalf of others without them knowing.

Such an application had been made in the name of Sara, he said. “That’s fraud and misrepresentation.” 

While Mkhwebane, in her report, had directed six remedial actions, including a review of the policy, this had never been done.

“In May this year, senior officials of the NAC, including its new chairperson, lied to the portfolio committee that it had implemented the remedial action. I immediately wrote to the portfolio committee chair ... and then to the speaker,” he said, but “everyone has gone underground”.

“I have put it in writing that the members of the committee and the minister have been protecting this policy — this looting scheme — and I have opened a case with the Hawks. This has been going on for years.”

He said the department supported “privately run orchestras” but it had taken years for Sara — which empowered black children — to get funding.

“The new government, our own people, black people, are blocking that empowerment because they don’t understand the industry. They are driven by arrogance and ignorance ... if an initiative doesn’t come from one of their cliques or cabals, it must be choked.

“I don’t know where we would be if it wasn’t for the public protector. She changed the game — not for me but for the black child,” he said.

He said since Mkhwebane’s suspension “it is like going back to square one” at the office of the public protector.

Nyathela is expected to be questioned by evidence leaders later on Wednesday.

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