Staff at the Downtown Music Hub are approaching 18 months without salaries.
The latest developments come more than a year after Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie halted further funding to the Downtown Music Hub and ordered an investigation into funding provided to the project since 2008.
The number of employees currently affected could not immediately be independently confirmed.
However, in 2025 CCMA proceedings involved nine Downtown Music Hub employees, with an award of about R191,724.63 in outstanding salaries.
This excludes the CEO and senior management.
The Department announced in June 2025 that it was stopping further funding to allow a full investigation into funds already disbursed and to determine what should happen to the asset going forward.
According to the Department, R93.308 million had been provided to the project through grants between 2008 and 2025.
But more than a year later, the future of the facility remains unclear.
Information obtained by Africa Daily indicates that employees have gone for an extended period without receiving their salaries, with the outstanding period expected to reach 18 months by the end of August.
The financial distress has extended beyond employees.
“Service providers and clients who had already paid for studio bookings before the facility was closed are also waiting for their payments and refunds. This prolonged financial uncertainty has had severe consequences for us. Some of us have already lost our cars and homes and our children have been chased out of school. Our lives have been turned upside down,” one of the employees revealed.
The uncertainty is compounded by the status of the investigation ordered by McKenzie.
In June 2025 he said that the investigation would establish the full facts around the Hub’s finances and determine how every cent provided to the project had been spent.
At the time, McKenzie said that no adverse findings had been made regarding the Hub’s funding, aside from Auditor-General findings concerning the National Arts Council’s purchase of the building and the accounting treatment of the studio business.
However, a significant development emerged in May 2026 through a separate forensic investigation into the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA).
The Department announced that the CCIFSA forensic investigation had found that R13 million in Downtown Music Hub funds was commingled with CCIFSA’s own funds in a single bank account.
The Department described the arrangement as a serious governance failure and said CCIFSA’s appointment as fiduciary agent for DTMH followed a flawed procurement process.
The finding raises further questions about the flow and management of money intended for the Downtown Music Hub.
It also makes the outstanding DTMH forensic investigation particularly significant: what did the broader investigation find about the remaining funds provided to the Hub, and what action will follow?
There is also an unresolved question over what is happening to the physical assets of the Hub while the investigation and government’s decision-making process continue.
The Department’s June 2025 statement acknowledged that the ownership arrangements surrounding the building and studios had never been properly resolved.
According to the Department, the building and assets were initially intended to be donated to the Downtown Music Hub, a special-purpose entity established in 2010.
However, the proposed transfer was never completed because the DSAC, National Arts Council and National Treasury could not reach agreement on the appropriate ownership arrangement.
The Department said an alternative proposal to transfer the assets to the Department of Public Works also did not materialise.
As a result, the NAC incorporated the assets into its books, creating accounting difficulties around the acquisition of the building.
The Department said the acquisition was eventually condoned by the then Minister of Arts and Culture together with the Minister of Finance.
But the question now is what is happening to those assets while the Hub remains effectively inactive.
Information obtained by Africa Daily indicates that the property is currently not being guarded by a security company. As a result there has been two break-ins already.
There are also concerns about what is happening to equipment and other assets inside the building.
According to information provided to Africa Daily, the Sheriff has already attached some of the assets but has not returned to collect them.
“The assets include recording equipment, computers, furniture and fittings, among other items. Last year, the sheriff came to attach some of the assets but never returned. Perhaps if the assets had been collected, we would have been paid by now,” another source said.
Africa Daily approached DSAC with detailed questions concerning the investigation, the R93.3 million, the building and assets, outstanding salaries, unpaid service providers and clients.
The Department was specifically asked whether the investigation had been completed, whether a final report had been produced, what its findings were and whether any financial irregularities had been identified.
It was also asked who currently has legal custody or control of the Hub’s assets, whether an inventory and condition assessment had been conducted, and what arrangements were in place to secure the property.
It had not responded by the deadline.
Downtown Music Hub was separately approached for comment.
The organisation said it was unable to comment substantively because the matter concerning DTMH and its assets is currently under the purview of the Minister.
Downtown Music Hub CEO, Mpume Mthembu said: “After consulting with our board, I must confirm that DTMH is not in a position to comment on this matter at the moment. The issue concerning DTMH and its assets is currently under the purview of the Minister, and we are limited in what we can share while that process is ongoing. DTMH fully cooperated with the forensic inquiry, and we, like the public, await its findings.”
This leaves a central question unanswered; more than a year after the Minister halted funding and called for an investigation, when will the findings be made public and what will happen to the Hub and its assets?
The Department’s own records show that the project has received more than R93 million in grants since 2008, including an initial R7.5 million investment in 2008/09 and a R20 million infrastructure grant in 2013/14.
DSAC also acknowledged that the studio business had been operating at a loss and that health and safety problems in the building had affected opportunities to generate additional income.
The latest developments therefore leave four unresolved questions at the centre of the Downtown Music Hub saga:
What happened to the money?
What happened to the investigation?
What is happening to the people who have not been paid?
And perhaps most urgently:
What is happening to the publicly funded building and equipment while everyone waits for the government to decide what happens next?
Africa Daily will update this article should the Department provide a response.
