Durban - THE R25million budgeted for arts and culture, which will go towards funding former president Jacob Zuma’s burgeoning singing career, could be used to buy basic essentials for people in the eThekwini district.
This was the view of residents and artists surveyed by the Daily News this week.
Mohammed Hussen, 64, said the money would go a long way to alleviating the needs of the poor.
“There are people who sleep in the streets and people who are unemployed,” he said.
Mandla Gumede, 47, said he would buy the album to hear what the fuss was about, but the amount budgeted was “just too much”, especially when there were people without homes and areas in the municipality without proper roads.
“That money could have made a difference to the lives of the poor,” Gumede said.
A woman who did not want to be named said she did not think the record deal was fair on poor people.
Active Citizens Movement chairperson, Ben Madokwe, said it was wrong for the municipality to waste money on something that was not its core business, especially when the city was failing in housing provision and refuse collection.
“It is a slap in the face,” Madokwe said. He added that the record deal was a scheme to fund Zuma for his corruption case.
“We believe the Auditor-General should conduct an investigation into this specific case and the mismanagement of other funds,” he said.
Wilfred “Will B” Aploon questioned how such a large amount could be used on Zuma, when he had been struggling to get a recording deal for more than 30 years.
“There are a lot of good, struggling musicians that this money could help,” he said. The 54-year-old said he sang at Zacks, a café at Windermere Centre.
“You don’t need so much to record an album. Even R500000 is enough,” Aploon said.
KwaZulu-Natal United Music Industry Association general manager, Thando Nyameni, said a portion of the money would make a difference to the entire music industry.
“Huge projects have been done for about R100000, and that is a high-end professional record, so what is this R25m going to do? Maybe the municipality can explain,” Nyameni said.
He said musicians could be developed further if the money was invested in music platforms.