Litnet

More than 650 individuals in the arts, culture and heritage sector endorsed the Unite Against Corruption campaign in less than a week. It includes some of the country’s best-known artists and administrators, practitioners from across all disciplines, veteran creatives and a new generation of imagination workers, hardened activists and those dipping their feet into the politics of culture for the first time. The list below is intended to highlight the incredibly broad support generated most rapidly from within the sector around a particular issue: to stand against corruption in the civil service, in business, in politics, in social institutions, in the arts; indeed, wherever it is manifest. The campaign to Unite Against Corruption has helped to unite – at least symbolically – many in the arts and culture sector across the traditional divides of discipline, region, race, gender, sexual orientation, political belief, status, etc. In response to those who seek to dismiss the list of signatories as “unrepresentative”, the selection below is a simple celebration of the diversity of support from within the cultural sector for the anti-corruption campaign; it by no means seeks to devalue or elevate anyone, nor to claim that the – voluntary – list is a perfect representation of the arts and culture sector.

- Choreographers include this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance, Luyanda Sidiya; two former Jazzart Artistic Directors in Alfred Hinkel and Jaqui Manyaapelo; Jay Pather, founder of Siwele Sonke Dance Theatre, Jayesperi Moopen of Tribhangi Dance Theatre and the internationally acclaimed Xoliswe Xaba and Robyn Orlin.

Zakes Mda, Mark Gevisser, Niq Mhlongo, Marlene van Niekerk, MothobiMutloatse and Margie Orford are among the fiction and non-fiction writers who have endorsed the campaign.

Numerous theatre directors, like Sylvaine Strike, Basil Appollis, Steven Stead, Princess Mhlongo, Alan Swerdlow, Thoko Ntshinga, Marthinus Basson and Lara Bye have come out in support.

Opera singers are represented by Njabulo Madlala, Sibongile Mngoma and Marcus Desando, while veteran photographers like Omar Badsha, Cedric Nunn, Rashid Lombard, Rafs Mayet and Suzy Bernstein have signed up too.

The list is sprinkled with television soapie and series stars such as Shaleen Surtie-Richards, Vinette Ebrahim, Erica Wessels, Zane Meas, Mbulelo Grootboom, Lizz Meiring and Tobie Cronjé, while Bobby Heaney and Karen Meiring represent television producers.

Some of the country’s largest festivals are represented by Tony Lankester and Ismail Mahomed (National Arts Festival), Ricardo Peach (Vry Festival), Rhode Snyman (Klein Karoo National Arts Festival), Georgina Thompson (Dance Umbrella), while Thami Mbongo heads up the Zabalaza Festival and Carmel Rickard the Platteland Preview Arts Festival.

Among others, the heritage sector is represented by Deirdre Prins-Solani, Bongani Mgijima and Steven Sack. Cartoonists are there in the persons of Nanda Soobben, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) and Chip Snaddon, with Mtuthuzeli Matshoba, Mitzi Booysen and Thandi Brewer representing screenwriters.

On the actors’ front the list boasts Andrew Buckland, Mncedisi Shabangu, Sandra Prinsloo, Jennifer Steyn, Menzi Mkhwane, Diane Wilson, Deon Lotz, Marius Weyers, Nthombi Makutshi, James Cairns, Fiona Ramsay, Rajesh Gopie, Faniswa Yisa, Anna-Mart van der Merwe, Gcina Mhlope … and that’s not even half of them!

There are cultural activists (not their only profiles) like Nadia Meer, Zihle Matolweni, Arlette Franks, Megan Furniss, Mzwamadoda Vava, Sefako Mohlomi and Cedric Matolweni, and performance artists in Anthea Moys and Odidi Mfenyana.

Playwrights include the two Pauls, Grootboom and Slabolepszy, together with Craig Higginson, Saartjie Botha, Zwai Mgijima, Neil Coppen and a younger writing generation in Eliot Moleba, Phillip Dikotla, Bulelani Mabutyana, Philip Rademeyer, Xabiso Zweni and Gomotsegang Moagi.

Elsabe Zietsman, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Karen Zoid, Roger Lucey and Marah Louw are among the listed singers, while poets Maishe Maponya, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Nqobile Mazibuko, Khadija Tracey Heeger, Heather Robertson and Malika Ndlovu have added their voices too.

There are leaders of NGOs in James Mabela (Limpopo Arts and Culture Association), Kurt Egelhof (Performing Arts Network of SA), Valmont Layne (Arterial Network), Thandile Petshwa (Nelson Mandela Arts Council), Yvette Hardie (ASSITEJ), Adrian Galley (SA Guild of Actors), Maseko Sello (Gauteng Theatre Practitioners).

There are arts administrators like Lulama Masimini (Steve Biko Centre), James E French (Bag Factory), André le Roux (SAMRO), Nicolette Moses (Baxter Theatre) and the hugely experienced Percy Tucker (founder of Computicket) and Peter Terry and Louis van Niekerk (Theatre Benevolent Fund) who have also endorsed the campaign, along with individuals engaged in arts funding such as Pieter Jacobs (Arts and Culture Trust) and Irma Albers (Distell Foundation).

Rehad Desai, Barry Berk, Andrew Worsdale, Mariza Matshaya, Nicky Newman and David Forbes are some of the filmmakers who have signed up along with film producers Catherina Weinek, Steven Markovitz and Junaid Ahmed.

Even art journalists and bloggers are there in number: Adrienne Sichel, Sylvia Vollenhoven, Marianne Thamm, Brooks Spector, Christine Kennedy, Steyn du Toit, Mary Corrigall, Tracey Kim Saunders and Paul Boekkooi.

Curators include Bongi Dhlomo, Brenton Maart, Carol Brown, Aysha Waja, Loyisa Ka Qanya and Backyard Art Gallery director Kgosi Khumalo. Phillip Miller, Bongani Magatyana, Concord Nkabinde and Charl-Johan Lingenfelder are among the composers and there are even cultural policy specialists in Avril Joffe, Alude Mahali and Lebogang Lance Nawa.

A number of veteran theatre producers in Hennie van Greunen, Anthony Wilson, Tshiamo Mokgadi, André Stolz, Hugo Theart, Welcome Msomi, Des and Dawn Lindberg are on the list, as well as a new generation in Karabo Kgokong, Thapelo Kgakatsi, Kyla Davis, Tara Notcutt and Matjamela Motloung.

Pieter-Dirk Uys, Alan Committie and Siv Ngesi are stand-up comedians who have endorsed the campaign, together with Comedy Producer, Monwabisi Grootboom.

Sharlene Versfeld, Allison Foat, Bridget van Oerle, Fahiem Stellenboom and Vanessa Perumal are among the country’s leading arts publicists and are on the list together with numerous academics and educators such as David Andrew, Chris de Bruyn, Masedi Godfrey Manyane, Marie-Heleen Coetzee, Malcolm Purkey, Nico Luwes, Malcolm Payne and Dominic Thorburn.

From mainstream theatre institutions the list has Annabell Lebethe (Market Theatre), Daniel Galloway (Fugard Theatre), Jerry Mofokeng (PACOFS), Kingdom Moushounyane (Mmabana Cultural Centres) and Gita Pather (Wits Theatres), while community-based theatre training and exhibition spaces are represented by Gerard Bester (Hillbrow Theatre Project), Jennie Reznek (Magnet Theatre) and Caroline Calburn (Theatre Arts Admin).

Visual artists include Brett Murray, Kiren Thathia, Diane Victor, Churchill Madikida, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Gavin Younge, Kai Lossgott, Nirupa Singh, Sarita Ranchod, Benon Lutaaya and Evette Weyers, with support from art publications like Art South Africa (Brendon Bell-Roberts) and David Krut Publishers.

Would it not be great if this collection of experience, diversity, skill, passion and knowledge – representative of a larger list itself, but a sample of a broader arts, culture and heritage sector – could be applied to addressing the challenges and realising the possibilities of the sector itself, and then in affirming the sector and its role and contribution within our broader society?