The organisations have also made it clear to Kelebeng during the Creative Arts Pitso this week that they want the operations of the NACB halted. The bodies have given the minister two weeks to act on the matter. “We respectfully request guidance and a response from the minister within 14 days to facilitate the urgent implementation of these resolutions,” they stated firmly. The Creative Arts Pitso, called by the minister, was hosted on Monday with only a handful of artists and creative bodies turning up.
However, those present told the minister and his team that they were representing a diverse array of organisations and individuals who “have collectively identified pressing issues affecting the governance of the National Arts Council of Botswana. We call upon the minister to dissolve the National Arts Council of Botswana’s current board. This request is based on a motion of no confidence stemming from their failure to fulfil their mandate and the board’s unconstitutional extension of terms without appropriate notice,” they said further, urging the minister to formulate an interim board, which will run for six months. “This board will facilitate the registration of Creative Industry affiliations, finalise necessary regulations, and convene an Annual General Meeting (AGM) within the six-month time frame,” they explained.
Whilst the minister was retrained to comment directly on the matter at the Pitso, Mmegi reached out to NACB with the creative’s concerns. “The current Board was appointed in line with the National Arts Council of Botswana Act. Their appointment is substantive and cannot be deemed interim in any way. It has been appointed by the minister responsible for Arts to amongst others, set up the organisation and put in place systems and policies, adequately resourced the organisation and prepared it for full operations as mandated by the Act. The Board was first appointed in 2022 and over time has had a few changes due to different reasons as would be expected,” read a response from the organisation. Asked to comment on the call for the board to be dissolved by the artists, the NACB responded: “The decision to dissolve the Board lies solely with the Honourable Minister of Sport and Arts, and we are confident that the Honourable Minister will assess all the necessary factors and make the appropriate decision at the right time, with the overall objective of ensuring the best outcome for the NACB and the creative industry.” Still at the meeting, the creatives dropped another bombshell. They told the minister that following the dramatic firing of the former CEO of the Arts Council, some board members had resigned from the board to apply for the CEO position, further fuelling allegations that the CEO was pushed out. Indeed, in her court papers, the former CEO, Shombie Ellis, had alleged collusion of some board members and staff to kick her out. “We urge the withdrawal of the current process for deploying the CEO as allegations have surfaced regarding potential conflicts of interest due to certain board members allegedly resigning to pursue the CEO position,” they said.
Arts&Culture further reached out to NACB to respond, to which they said: “We can confirm that indeed two Board members have decided to resign from the NACB Board. They were members of the Board and did not hold any position within the Council.” The creatives further pleaded with the minister to consider the terms of reference relevant to the Creative Industry to be established to guide the recruitment of the CEO and any support staff. They further called for a pause in the call for the National Arts Festival to allow the process to reflect the inclusiveness of the creative industry associations and stakeholders. Some also called out the ministry staff for favouritism alleging that the staff tends to prefer to support other projects over others and not based on merit. “A structured mechanism should be established that enables fair and unbiased funding of creative projects without political favouritism or alignment. We propose that tenderpreneurship be prohibited in arts procurement processes.This approach has been detrimental to the industry, fostering corruption among government officials without yielding significant benefits for the creative sector,” they said. Whilst the Arts Council became the hot topic at the Creative Arts Pitso, the council shared its successes. “Arts and culture categories projects amounting to P3, 181, 967.25 were funded whilst in the literary works category, projects amounting to P426, 576 were approved for funding in 2023/2024. Whereas these are not exhaustive, the organisation is currently in the process of taking over some national activities such as the National Arts Festival, which was previously organised by the former Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture. The Council is also in the process of identifying suitable and credible citizen partners from the private sector to partner with and enhance the value of such activities to benefit Botswana creatives,” they shared.
