Karabo Ntanzi
The Provincial Government through the Department of Sport; Arts and Culture intend to return the annual Diamonds and Dorings Music Festival, however, the festival is usually surrounded by controversies. The media briefing organised by Sol Plaatje Municipality and the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture was well attended by business people who expressed their dissatisfaction over the arrangement of the festival.
“How can they make such an announcement for a festival that will take place within six weeks? When are they going to advertise and appoint service providers? Where will the service provider source artists from in such a short space of time? This is just a smoke screen, the authorities have already decided on a service provider, who is probably already hard at work with arrangements to host the event,” said an irate businessman.
The Diamonds and Dorings Festival, has been the première event held over the Easter Weekend, for many years fell off 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost containment measures introduced by the National Treasury and budgetary constraints experienced by the Sol Plaatje Municipality were other reasons that led to the death of this event.
The Sol Plaatje Municipality held a Special Council Meeting on Monday, 05 February 2024, to grant the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture permission to host the event this year with the following special conditions amongst others;
- The Department will be responsible for paying all costs associated with the hosting of the 2024 edition of the festival.
- The Department procures all goods and services at its cost to host the 2024 festival edition.
- The rights to hold any future versions of the festival remain that of Sol Plaatje Municipality.
- Should the Department require access to any properties belonging to Sol Plaatje Municipality to host the 2024 edition of the Festival, the Department shall be responsible for approaching the Sol Plaatje Municipality to obtain the necessary approvals to use and access such properties.
According to DSAC they welcome this agreement because it falls within the scope of promoting the arts. Social cohesion is one of the Department’s objective. It was indicated on their media statement that this initiative also ensures the much-needed local economic beneficiation across the province. They intend to use this festival as a build up to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the country’s democracy.
On the media statement, DSAC undertook to ensure that due diligence will be followed in the procurement processes. Going a step further they will engage with the Municipality and organised businesses as they view this as an exciting opportunity to promote local economy.
Comments are closed.