This year saw, for the first time since 1995, South Africa participating in the Venice Biennale. Sadly, the participation was shrouded in controversy after the appointment of Monna Mokoena as commissioner and Thembinkosi Goniwe as curator fell under scrutiny. The Department of Arts and Culture seemingly made these appointments without any consultation or open tender procedure. This was done despite the fact that precedents for participation in the Biennale had been set up in South Africa’s 1993 involvement. This precedent was duly followed...

This year saw, for the first time since 1995, South Africa participating in the Venice Biennale. Sadly, the participation was shrouded in controversy after the appointment of Monna Mokoena as commissioner and Thembinkosi Goniwe as curator fell under scrutiny. The Department of Arts and Culture seemingly made these appointments without any consultation or open tender procedure. This was done despite the fact that precedents for participation in the Biennale had been set up in South Africa’s 1993 involvement. This precedent was duly followed in South Africa’s next participation in 1995. In both of these cases, the government gazette and the media were used to make a call for submissions and proposals. However, these procedures were not followed in 2011.

What brought the controversy to a head was the fact that Mr Mokoena originally hid his identity from both the South African public and at least one of the participating artists. On the Venice Biennale’s website it was announced that a Mr Lethole Mokoena was the commissioner of the South African pavilion and that a show curated by Mr Goniwe would include the artists Simon Allen, Lyndi Sales, Mary Sibande and Zwelethu Mthethwa. It was then uncovered by the blogger ‘Panga Management’ that the ‘Lethole Mokoena’ referred to on the Biennale’s website was in fact the private art dealer Monna Mokoena, owner of Gallery Momo, who represents both Lyndi Sales and Mary Sibande. Mr Mthethwa then pulled out of the venture in protest stating that he was doing so due to a ‘lack of transparency’.

The curator of South Africa’s 1995 participation, Prof Malcolm Payne, has been vocal in calling for an investigation into the selection of the commissioner, curator and the artists but has been met with silence from the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and censure from the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA).

Neither Mr. Mokoena, nor Mr Goniwe, nor indeed the minister of Arts and Culture, Mr. Paul Mashatile, have made any response to questions put to them about possible corruption. Both the DAC and Mr. Mokoena have not answered questions as to what kind of relationship Mr. Mokoena has with the minister and whether they are indeed friends, as has been rumoured. All the parties in question have refused to answer questions concerning the processes that were followed, and what money was used to sponsor what the DAC itself referred to as Mr Mokoena’s ‘private initiative’.  This silence has also extended to questions put to the DAC surrounding the rumours that the ministry took out, and has paid for, a long lease on a building in Venice.

One of the few people to date to have responded to questions on these matters is Mr Victor Dlamini. When the controversy first arose, Mr Dlamini, from the company Chillibush Communications, was reported to be the spokesperson for the commissioner of the Venice Biennale, Mr Mokoena. During this period he stated that the reason for the use of Mokoena’s own artists in the Biennale was that Robin Rhode and Nicholas Hlobo had been contacted but were unavailable. This information, however, proved false in the case of Rhode, who said that neither Mokoena nor any of his representatives had contacted him in this regard. In the last few months Mr Dlamini and his partner at Chillibush, Ms Dale Hefer, have distanced themselves from the Biennale.

Mr Dlamini, who earlier this year defended Mr Goniwe from the media’s representation of him as Mr Mokoena’s ‘stooge’, refused to comment on his own earlier statements. Dlamini, who had previously referred to Mr. Goniwe as a ‘serious ideologue’, curtly responded: ‘kindly speak to the curator Mr Goniwe, regarding which artists he contacted prior to finalizing his selection’. Mr Goniwe is known to have been contacted by Prof Payne concerning these matters, but has yet to respond. Ms Hefer then went on to confirm that ‘Chillibush was not involved in any way at all in the Biennale and certainly did not receive any payment. Our Chairman, Victor Dlamini, acted as an independent consultant’.

Despite several attempts to get the minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Paul Mashatile, to respond to questions, both in the National Assembly and through the Promotions of Access to Information Act, nothing has been forthcoming. Mr Mashatile, whose performance was inexplicably rated as ‘You’re Okay’ by the Mail and Guardian, has flagrantly ignored both the law and the National Assembly by doing so and has showed no signs of breaking his silence. The concerns resulting from the minister’s silence were recently exacerbated when the deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe did not address questions concerning the Biennale. This was despite Mr Motlanthe’s assurances to the chief whip of the DA that he would do so. Dr Lotriet of the DA, who originally put the questions to Mr Mashatile in the National Assembly, has vowed to persist in asking questions on the matter despite both Mr Mashatile and Mr Molanthe's snubs.