By Setsabile Nkambule | 2020-06-01

ESWATINI National Council of Arts and Culture has made a request for E1 million from government as artists’ relief fund.

This was revealed by ENCAC CEO Stanley Dlamini yesterday.

He stated that the relief budget would be for both festival organisers and individual artists.

Dlamini said due to the crisis faced by the cultural and creative sector, they have ideas that they hoped  government would approve of. “The accelerated spread of Covid-19 since the beginning of March in the country posed unprecedented challenges to the arts/cultural sector. The kingdom considers that the cultural sector, as well as the tourism sector, is among the sectors most affected by the pandemic. In Eswatini, since March cultural events and large gatherings of people have been banned. By early April, similar restrictions had been adopted in every country of the world,” said Dlamini. Dlamini stated that the path towards recovery should be a carefully staggered journey. He said their focus should be on immediate responses and interventions to mid-term and long term approaches. He added that with the sector players, they were proposing on how the easing could be done.

Resuscitating

He said they would ensure that art was resuscitating in a manner that protect the health of the artists, the art consumers, the funders and the public. “We have proposed to the government that the art that has a low risk of spreading COVID 19 and can be allowed in full compliance with the guidelines set up in the Kingdom of Eswatini, the ministry of health and WHO. A technical health support team to help regulate and evaluate compliances in the sector has been proposed,” he said.

He said they also wished that activities that operate with smaller numbers; where  they wearing a mask shall be an obligation and prerogative for an entrance and sanitisation process at the entrance and temperature testing.

 “We hope government will avail activities emergency funding/ creation and distribution of special creative funds, interest free loans, tax breaks/relief, cost reduction measures extended payments. We also plead for promotion of cultural activities and education seminars, online resources and also provision of online tools to aid artists in creating, producing and sharing their works online,” he said.

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