This year's satirical event will test the strained relationship with government under cover of Uys, who's hardly seen as dangerous

Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of arts and culture, may have dodged a bullet with the Farlam Commission report on the Marikana tragedy, but the National Arts Festival (NAF) programme might not let him off the hook so easily.

This is largely due to the main thematic thrust of this year’s programme: satire – political satire. Isn’t all satire ultimately political?

It’s been a while since the festival has promoted a particular theme; there have always been allusions to them, but they have not been strongly promoted or executed. This year is different. There is a clear message that permeates the programme. Not only does the cover of the tome listing all the gazillion shows boast an illustration of Pieter-Dirk Uys in the various guises he adopted during the apartheid era (and now), but an excerpt from our Constitution appears: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of the press and other media; freedom to receive or impart information or ideas; freedom of artistic creativity; and academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.”

Aside from a mini-retrospective of Uys’s works on the main theatre platform and film programme (usually the most carefully curated segment), Chester Missing makes an appearance and an old festival hit (from the fringe), a politically themed satiric twist on the titular Three Blind Mice, by Albert Pretorius, Rob van Vuuren, James Cairns and Tara Louise Nottcutt, has finally moved to the main programme.

Winning cartoons will be exhibited and the ThinkFest! provides a number of meaty discussions tackling the role (and risk) of creating satire which will be led by Dario Milo, the legal representative for Zapiro and the Goodman Gallery during the infamous Spear of the Nation case.

That discussion references high-profile entanglements between artists and the government that mostly involved President Jacob Zuma, who took legal action against Brett Murray and Jonathan Shapiro several years ago.

It is curious, therefore, that this topic is only being raised now. Were the organisers grappling for a theme that would have mass appeal? Are they even tuned into what is occurring across disciplines in our cultural landscape (my impression is that satire is not the tool young artists are employing)? Or are the organisers and artistic director, Ismail Mohamed, still locked into that old pattern of thinking where cultural expression only has social value if it engages with politics?

It is probably all of these, but it is also likely that Mthethwa’s statements at the press conference preceding the opening last year, where he stated that artists should not cause “social discontent” with works guided by “derogatory intentions” may have prompted the organisers to counter the government’s stance. Or, at the very least, they are trying to communicate to the artistic community and the festival-goers that, despite being a government-funded and endorsed initiative, they uphold and guarantee the values set out in our Constitution that protect “artistic creativity”.

It is interesting they would deem this necessary. While this political satire theme might be out of step with cultural production at this point, it is pertinent to a set of developments that have been occurring in the arts, which have seen the government reaching its tentacles (deeper), often under the guise of “protecting” artists and giving them a helping hand.

Unfortunately, artists are vulnerable due to the fact that they have not formed any entities to guarantee and fight for their rights and they are constantly dependent on the government and other foreign institutions for funding. Artists are difficult to organise not because they are disorganised, but reaching consensus among people who are independent thinkers and struggle to fit into or conform to rules that govern bodies is a huge barrier.

The establishment of Cifsa – the Creative Industries Federation of South Africa – by the government last year was most probably seen as a solution. However, if there was ever an institution most artists would not endorse it would be one established by government.

This could prove to be a toxic relationship. Not only in light of Mthethwa and the government’s stance on art – that there are lines artists must not cross – but the way in which the DAC assumes to fund initiatives that are self-serving.

Vuyani Dance Theatre’s production Rain, and over-simplistic depiction of Xenophobia, which was part of the DAC’s Africa Month programme, is a good example of how art can paper over and over-compensate for government failures.

Does the DAC fund art by African nationals in our country?

A large percentage of the arts community will not recognise CIFSA due to the exclusionary processes and twisted ethics surrounding its establishment and nomination processes. The debates surrounding this organisation are not incidental to this year’s National Arts Festival as it forces us to analyse the relationship between artists and the government, at a time when it has become quite strained.

Satire tests this relationship without always dealing with the push-pull underlying it – artists aren’t making work about how their community relates to the government. The fundamental schism between the government and the arts community seems to be linked to quite differing views on its purpose; as Mthethwa revealed and the draft for the new White Paper on culture affirms, art continues to be seen as a tool, an instrument for politicians to create work and “rebuild” society.

From this point of view it is hard to see a place for satire or art that critically engages with politics or even attitudes that are destructive, which the government or our president has tacitly endorsed.

The National Arts Festival organisers might appear to be butting heads with Mthethwa over his stance on creative expression and its limits.

However, they are also doing so under the safe cover of Uys – he is hardly seen as edgy or dangerous.

• The National Arts festival, now in its 41st year, is running until July 12.

Mary Corrigal

A female-centric universe

NAF takes stab at state from safe place