Johannesburg - The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has warned against a fraudulent group who allegedly claimed the department would give artist stipends to fraudulently obtain personal information from artists.
The group however claimed that a departmental official contacted the group and agreed to pay the alleged stipend prior to the department’s scam warning.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture issued a statement on Saturday starting that it was brought to the department’s attention that there was a group of individuals who called themselves The Campaign ZA, who were allegedly using fraudulent means to attain personal information for artists.
“The group have circulated messages via WhatsApp and other platforms, with false claims that ‘Government has agreed to pay all creatives a stipend for three -six months during this lockdown period’ and they are calling on creatives to email, amongst other things, their ID numbers and banking details to the following address: [email protected],” the department said today.
Minister Nathi Mthethwa issued a warning asking artists to be aware of the alleged scam.
The Star spoke to the organizers of the campaign, which is also called #JusticeForCreatives, who however alleged that a department official contacted the campaign’s spokesperson Dr Cino Shearer and agreed to a stipend for the artists.
Shearer told The Star that the collective of over 3 000 creatives, entertainers, film makers and art and fashion designers, were confused about why the department called the group a scam.
“I don’t know which part of it is a scam because nobody is asked to give money or to pay to belong to this group of collective and there is no money that is asked to the group or from the group by the campaign manager or anybody else,” she said.
The spokesperson added that the collective was also confused because the group allegedly collected their and other freelance creatives’ names and contact details themselves and sent them to the department with a memorandum of demands.
The memorandum of demands included the call for the government to establish a committee selected by the creatives to monitor all activities in the sector; for the committee to have offices and resources and separate departments to focus on different art sectors.
The demands also included the call for the government to ensure stipends were considered for role players who don’t have a source of income and for the government to formalize the arts sector.
#JusticeForCreative’s Shantel Molly said the group sent the department the memorandum on May 1 and that two weeks ago the group allegedly received a response.
“Two weeks ago one of the people that work for the minister phoned our spokesperson and told her that they can meet some of our demands… They said they could not give us a building but they could give us a stipend for three to six months but now all of a sudden we are seeing on Twitter that we are scam artists,” she said.
Molly added that the arts sector was facing its most devastating time because of the lockdown.
“We are freelancers and in our industry it’s no work, no pay and if we don't work we don’t have money to feed our kids… We don’t have UIF or support and who is looking after us as freelancers? Nobody,” she said.
@Chulu_M