Mthethwa criticised for ‘insensitive’ tweet

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa has come under fire yet again for a “distasteful” and “insensitive” tweet on the day of Riky Rick’s funeral.

Mthethwa tweeted that he and his department were at the Kgosi Mampuru Museum in Tshwane to officially launch Human Rights month.

“As an integral part of our programme, we embarked on a tour of the Kgosi Mampuru Gallows Museum, a national heritage site,” he tweeted, along with the images of the museum.

According to SA History, it is the only prison in South Africa where executions took place.

“Between 1902 and 1989, more than 3,500 prisoners were executed at the prison, of which 132 were political prisoners. The gallows were dismantled in 1996, but it was decided to restore it as a memorial museum. The prison was declared a national heritage site.”

Mthethwa was criticised for sharing such images on the day of Riky Rick’s funeral, who passed on last week.

The minister closed off the comment section of his tweet as a result.

Earlier last year, artists started an online petition for him to resign and President Cyril Ramaphosa to have him replaced by the end of February 2021 if he failed to resign. They started the #NathiMustGo campaign in an attempt to also voice out their frustrations as they accused him of  being incompetent, with regards to the mismanagement of the funds that were supposed to be allocated to the artists.

This is after many artists who applied for the Presidential Employment Stimulus Package (PESP) were unsuccessful or had their funding commitments reversed.

An investigation report conducted by the Theatre and Dance Alliance (TADA) revealed that National Arts Council (NAC) members benefitted unlawfully from the PESP. The report further called for transparency in ensuring that those responsible for the abrupt cutting of PESP be held accountable.

The report stated that NAC failed to monitor and balance the allocation by panels.

Mthethwa and the NAC previously denied that NAC members had benefitted unlawfully from the stimulus package.