National Arts Council (NAC) chairperson Eugene Botha has resigned.
Four other council members went with him. According to insiders, all five resignations took effect on Wednesday, 14 October.
It is not yet clear why they resigned.
The members who resigned are Botha, Simon Clarke, Siphosethu Mtamzeli, Tau Masemola and Charnie-Lee Adams-Kruger.
Clarke and Mtamzeli are two of the three people the DA named last month as holding seats on three public boards at the same time.
The resignations come less than three months after the High Court reinstated the council that Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie had tried to dissolve.
The council is now left with 16 members. McKenzie is expected to fill the vacancies.
McKenzie appointed Botha as chairperson. The council took office on 1 January 2025.
Questions about Botha’s ties to McKenzie have followed him from the start.
Last year, the chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on sport, arts and culture, Joe McGluwa told a sitting that Botha had been listed as a director of the Gayton McKenzie Business Academy, together with the minister.
The company was deregistered only in February 2025. The committee chairperson said this raised serious questions about a possible conflict of interest.
In September, DA spokesperson on sport, arts and culture Leah Potgieter said Botha had previously been the Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) national head of elections and legal affairs. She said he had also been McKenzie’s personal attorney and strategic adviser.
Potgieter said Clarke, Mtamzeli and Omphemetse Mokgosi each sat on the NAC council, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) council and the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) board at the same time. Clarke chairs the JRA board. The JRA falls under Johannesburg’s transport portfolio, which is led by PA deputy president Kenny Kunene.
Mokgosi is not among those who resigned.
McKenzie dissolved the NFVF council on 23 September. The DA has lodged a complaint with the Public Protector about PA-linked people being appointed to the councils of the NFVF and the NAC.
McKenzie dissolved the NAC council with immediate effect in May. He said the council had failed to resolve a long-running labour dispute. He also raised concerns about procurement, including spending on external recruitment fees and on mobile devices for council members.
Botha did not fight that decision. “I respect the Minister’s decision and I do not intend to contest it,” he said in a WhatsApp message at the time.
Other council members went to court. On 31 July, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria suspended the dissolution and reinstated the council until the court rules on a review of McKenzie’s decision. The court also barred McKenzie from starting any process to appoint a replacement council.
That review is still pending.
