Tyamzashe is a former member of the\u00a0NLC\u2019s Arts, Culture and National Heritage Distributing Agency<\/a>. Other directors of Harmonica share the same surname as her. She declared a conflict of interest in the NLC\u2019s 2015\/16 annual report in which she stated that she was a director of the company.<\/p>\n Harmonica\u2019s registered address is a home in an upmarket residential estate in Kyalami, Gauteng, according to Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) records. The same address is recorded in CIPC records as the residential address of Tyamzashe and two other Harmonica directors, Andile Tyamzashe Duma and Joseph Siyothula.<\/p>\n Harmonica does not have a website. The most recent\u00a0event<\/a>\u00a0that we could trace in which the organisation was directly involved was in 2011. There are no posts that give any clues as to what the Lottery-funded project entailed or how the grant was used. Also, contrary to the agreements all grantees sign agreeing to publicise the NLC\u2019s support, there is no Lottery branding on the page.<\/p>\n What did the Lotteries fund?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Harmonica Jazz Foundation claims to be a marketing company that \u201cpromotes support, provides marketing and other related services to artists\u201d according to its CIPC registration.<\/p>\n Yet the company does not have a website and finding contact details for the company involved a lengthy internet search.<\/p>\n But Harmonica has a Facebook page where contact details were finally tracked down in two separate posts dating back to 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n Nomalanga Tyamzashe said in a telephone interview that as a non-profit company Harmonica did not have a website because a \u201cwebsite needs money to sustain it\u201d.<\/p>\n She refused to disclose any details of the services the company offers, or any details of the project funded by the NLC.<\/p>\n Instead, she referred GroundUp to the NLC, since \u201cthey are the ones who funded the project and they are the ones who came for a site visit\u201d.<\/p>\n Same ID number, four different names<\/strong><\/p>\n Puzzlingly, Tyamzashe is registered in CIPC records under four different names: Violet Nomalanga Siyothula, Violet Siyothula, Violet Tyamzashe, and Violte Siyothula, which all share the same ID number.<\/p>\n She was appointed to the NLC in June 2013 as a member of the Lottery\u2019s Arts, Culture and National Heritage Distributing Agency, according to a Cabinet\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0at the time, which refers to her as Violet Tyamzashe.<\/p>\n The NLC\u2019s 2015\/2016 annual report, the same year that Harmonica\u2019s grant was awarded, reveals that \u201cMs VN Siyothula\u201d, listed as a member of the Sports and Recreation Distributing Agency, was paid R293,000 in \u201cmembers\u2019 fees\u201d. She also received a further R99,000 for travel costs and R85,000 for \u201cother services as member\u201d, a total of R477,000 in that financial year.<\/p>\n The NLC did not directly respond to a question asking for an explanation of this discrepancy about which distributing agency she was a member of.<\/p>\n What an R8.5 million Facebook page looks like<\/strong><\/p>\n Harmonica\u2019s Facebook page has shared details of various events relating to jazz since 2012. Frequent posts appeared on the Facebook page from May 2016 onwards, with the most recent post on 17 December 2019. Before there were a total of six posts during 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n Harmonica is listed on Facebook under the category of \u201cMusician\/Band\u201d and the \u201cabout\u201d page says the company was founded in 2006. It lists Duma Tyamzashe, who is a director of the company, as \u201cGeneral Manager\u201d. Other than these details, there is no other mention of the services or projects provided by Harmonica.<\/p>\n Engagement with the page\u2019s posts are minimal, with many only getting zero, one or two likes \u2014 and often it is Harmonica liking its own posts.<\/p>\n Many of the posts are \u201cshares\u201d of other jazz-related posts. The page also regularly shares posts about a variety of music events, tributes to musicians, photos with quotes, and sometimes photographs that are neither credited nor explained. None of the posts, as far as we could see, make any explicit indication that it has been funded by the NLC.<\/p>\n One post in 2016 mentions an \u201cArt Gallery\u201d that will have an exhibition in 2017 and that \u201cdetails will follow shortly\u201d. Details were however never shared and there is no indication that the exhibition took place.<\/p>\n No marketing activity<\/strong><\/p>\n Other than the Facebook page, we found two other links \u2014\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that describe an event hosted by Harmonica in 2011. One is for a \u201cBenjamin Tyamzashe Tribute Concert\u201d. The other refers to an event that \u201cwill introduce Harmonica Jazz Foundation, a woman-owned and managed promotions company\u201d.<\/p>\n The Theatre on the Track in Kyalami confirmed that they had hosted the Benjamin Tyamzashe Tribute Concert in early March 2011. And Christopher de Vries of event management company Out the Box Productions, said that they \u201cmanaged the show production and coordination of the artist rehearsal process\u201d in 2011, but had not worked with Harmonica since then. He said he did not know whether Harmonica was still operational.<\/p>\n Two sources with knowledge of the jazz industry confirmed that they had never heard of the Harmonica Jazz Foundation.<\/p>\n Andre Le Roux is an executive manager at the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO); a \u201cmusic rights champion\u201d who works with a variety of stakeholders in the music industry.<\/p>\n \u201cI have inquired with my colleagues and we have never heard of them. Neither have we funded them in the past,\u201d said Le Roux.<\/p>\n The other source, who has been heavily involved in the Cape Town International Jazz Festival for years, said he had never heard of Harmonica.<\/p>\n NLC dodges questions<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite being emailed detailed questions about the Harmonica grant, the NLC replied with a generic response:<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Lotteries Commission only disburse grants through non-profit making entities for the purposes of implementing projects in communities,\u201d wrote NLC spokesman Ndivuhuho Mafela. \u201cIt is important to note that the NLC does not award grants to individuals but to entities as mentioned above.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnother matter of importance is that the Distributing Agency members are independently appointed by the Minister of Trade and Industry. The NLC has got a unit that is responsible for monitoring and evaluation of all funded projects. This is to ensure that beneficiaries adhere to signed grant agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was originally published by GroundUp. Read the original here<\/a>.<\/p>\n GroundUp is being\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0after we\u00a0exposed<\/a>\u00a0dodgy Lottery deals involving millions of rands. Please help fund our defence.\u00a0You can support us via\u00a0Givengain<\/a>,\u00a0Snapscan<\/a>,\u00a0EFT<\/a>,\u00a0PayPal<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0PayFast<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Harmonica-Jazz-Foundation.png\")
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