Pretoria - The producer of Mandela The Opera, Unathi Mtirara, has not paid the artists who worked on his popular production at the State Theatre in Pretoria last year.
The production by Mtirara, a grandson of Nelson Mandela’s cousin, was staged from November 27 to December 2 and drew large crowds.
Mtirara blamed the Department of Arts and Culture for not paying the artists, saying it had not paid him enough money yet.
He was the brains behind the production, which was originally launched last year, but had to be stopped due to financial problems.
It is a musical rendition of the life of Mandela and starts from the time before his birth, to decisions on the future of the people of the Mvezo and Thembu nations.
Mtirara wrote the play based on stories he heard from the homestead Mandela lived in during his boyhood. The department took over the funding last year, leading to the production hitting the stage of Africa’s largest theatre complex in the heart of the capital city.
The cast included 60 young singers from the Tshwane University of Technology, as well as professional artists and a praise singer.
They took to social media platforms, including the department’s official page to express their frustrations.
However, the cast, crew and others who were part of the production told the Pretoria News this week Mtirara had been ducking and diving with their share of the payment he received from the Department of Arts and Culture.
They said Mtirara had cut off all communication with them for the past few weeks as they sought answers. According to members of the cast and crew, they were supposed to be paid by December 17.
That date would have been the 14th day after the last day of the production, as stipulated in their contracts with Mtirara’s company, Opera South Africa.
The artists claimed that Mtirara told them there were delays with the payments at the time. They believed him but the money never arrived.
The group preferred not be named, saying “we are still young and trying to establish ourselves in the industry and thus would not like to kill our chances of working with other producers”.
They said they signed contracts with Mtirara during the two-week rehearsal last November ahead of the shows in Pretoria. They had been chosen for the production during auditions held in September.
The agreement was that they would be paid R150 for a day of rehearsal and R200 for each of the five days of the show.
Some of the artists said they were unemployed when the opportunity to work with Mtirara presented itself and they had to borrow money and used up all their savings to travel to rehearsals. This was in the hope that the experience would be rewarding.
The opportunity was big - they would be taking part in the depiction of the life and times of the legendary statesman Nelson Mandela.
A group was created on WhatsApp where the producer kept them informed of everything related to the production.
It was on that platform that he informed them of the delay in payments in December and promised to provide feedback on a meeting with the department early in January.
Mtirara never reported back and has ignored their phone calls and messages, they claimed.
They said they were desperate for “some form of communication”.
But spokeswoman for the Department of Arts Culture, Lisa Combrinck, said payment had already been made to the producer.
Combrinck said at first there had been delays due to matters beyond the department’s control. “We are awaiting confirmation in writing from the producer that he has received the money. He has in the meantime made a commitment to settle the payments to the artists,” she said.
Mtirara initially told the Pretoria News he had not received any payment from the department, but when confronted with this information, he changed his tune and said he did not get all the money.
“They gave us the first tranche and are, to my understanding, processing the second. This will be followed by the third,” Mtirara said.
If the production ran into financial trouble, it wouldn’t be for the first time. In May 2014, Mtirara canned the production, saying the R2.86 million at his disposal at the time was not enough. The money had been raised through sponsorships and donations.
The department took over the funding and revived the production as part of the Unite campaign, which honoured Mandela’s commitment to justice, equality and non-racialism.
Art and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa hailed the event, saying it was significant as it was staged just days before the second anniversary of Mandela’s death on December 5.
@ntsandvose
Pretoria News