Cape Town Carnival: 'We're scrambling without Arts and Culture Dept funding'

The future of some of Cape Town’s cherished cultural festivals, including the Cape Town Carnival, the Open Book Festival and the Jazz Festival, remains uncertain.

In September, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture announced its budgets, revealing cuts to funding for many popular cultural events on the Mother City's calendar.

At the time, Western Cape Member of the Executive Council for Cultural Affairs and Sport Ricardo MacKenzie described the decision to withdraw funding as 'unconscionable'.

While she wouldn't be drawn on whether MacKenzie is a 'good minister' or not, Cape Town Carnival's Jay Douwes admitted she felt he has demonstrated a tendency to focus more on sport.

Four months on, Douwes provides an update on the carnival's future.

"We petitioned the minister and all our other sponsors to see if anyone could support us to fill the gap; we've had no positive responses from the minister or his office."

Douwes says while the carnival tries to source other funding opportunities, without government support, it's proving very difficult.

"I'm not sure how other people are making it work. I think they are scrambling," she says.

Douwes says that while the lack of funding is hard, the real shock factor came from the fact that organisations were given no warning from the Department.

"We've been getting national arts and culture funding for 15 years, then suddenly, without any warning, you don't have a year to develop something else."

Douwes says the impact of the funding cuts is far-reaching.

"It's job creation, it's skills transfer, it's socialising unemployed people into institutions, it's giving opportunities to performers and artists."

To listen to Douwes in conversation with CapeTalk's Amy MacIver, watch below: