For 11 days this winter, Makhanda once again became the cultural capital of SA as the 2026 National Arts Festival brought together more than 2,000 artists and 270 productions, exhibitions, and performances spanning theatre, music, dance, visual art, comedy, and literature.
It highlights the extraordinary creativity found across SA and the power of the arts to bring people together.
However, the troubling backdrop of unreliable water supplies, sewage spills, deteriorating roads, failing infrastructure and administrative collapse is ongoing.
In January 2020, the high court found Makana municipality had breached its constitutional obligations and ordered the dissolution of its council.
Six years later, the SA Human Rights Commission again recommended that dissolution after repeated interventions.
The NAF gives emerging artists access to audiences, critics, producers, and peers whom they might otherwise never encounter.
Programmes such as the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have helped elevate generations of talent.
Thousands of pupils and teachers have participated in the schools’ programme down the decades, attending performances, workshops, and other opportunities for creative learning.
For many youngsters, the Fest offers their first experience of professional theatre, dance, music, or visual art.
That exposure can change lives, unlock talent, build confidence, and light up career ambitions.
The Festival is vital to Makhanda’s economy. Direct economic impact on the town was about R57.9m in 2024, and R131.8m across the Eastern Cape.
Accommodation establishments, restaurants, informal traders, transport operators, and other SMMEs depend on the annual influx of visitors in a province blighted by unemployment.
The Festival has shrunk. From over 600 productions in 2019, there were fewer than half that number in 2026.
The National Arts Festival cannot survive indefinitely on resilience, emergency funding and goodwill.
National and provincial government must provide stable, transparent, multiyear support allowing the Festival to plan confidently, invest in artists, and rebuild its programme.
At the same time, decisive intervention is required in Makana — not just temporarily springcleaning streets while ignoring the failures that caused their deterioration.
We thank outgoing CEO Monica Newton for her courageous stewardship throughout the Covid years, and wish her well in the next chapter of her career.
Congratulations to new CEO Palesa Kadi, who on August 1 inherits an institution of immense national importance. We wish her every success.
The Festival has preserved opportunity, creativity, and economic activity in Makhanda despite the collapse surrounding it.
Government should now show the same determination to preserve and support the Festival. — Leander Kruger, MPL DA shadow MEC for sport, recreation, arts & culture