Free State police spokesperson, Motantsi Makhele, says the 48-year-old Pacofs CEO, Sharon Snell, alleges on Friday 22 October a group of people stormed her private vehicle in First Avenue as she arrived for work. Snell reportedly managed to reverse and flee the scene before heading straight to the police. According to Makhele, Snell has been receiving intimidating correspondence in the past, centred on her tiff with staff over vacant posts. The investigation is ongoing.

READ MORE: Pressure group demands probe into #Pacofs - VIDEO

Snell’s complaints come as members of the Mangaung Concerned Community (MCC) have twice attempted to forcibly gain entry into the Bloemfontein facility in less than a week. Whilst police thwarted their efforts to bring operations to a halt on Friday, it appears they succeeded on Monday, evicting workers from the building. MCC member, Donald Constable, previously said they have received numerous complaints in the last two weeks about alleged maladministration, bullying and sexual harassment at the embattled facility. Constable says the allegations centre on senior managers.

READ MORE: #BreakingNews: Hostile takeover reported at Pacofs - VIDEO

The MCC member alleges Snell currently occupies both the role of acting Pacofs CEO as well as that of the head of the National Museum in Bloemfontein. Now, the latter post is the one she occupied before being appointed as acting Pacofs CEO in April 2021, after her predecessor, Meshack Xaba, was demoted following a month-long sit-in by unhappy artists in the province who wanted him ousted.

Constable further alleges that there are sexual harassment charges laid against a senior manager. But to date, he is not suspended from work and his alleged victims are uncomfortable around him. There is also the issue of outsiders being appointed in key positions at Pacofs and on the board.

It was expected that the manager would engage the MCC on the allegations, but he reportedly refuses to do so, resulting in the hostile takeover witnessed on Monday.

Makhele has not confirmed nor denied the existence of a criminal case into the harassment allegations at Pacofs, despite the presentation of a case number in the media query.

This incident comes not too long after OFM News reported that artists that staged a sit-in at Pacofs over March and April 2021 remain aggrieved nearly seven months since their demonstration. The Free State coordinator of the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa (Ccifsa), Mbuyiselo Nqodi, says that it is still more of the same, since Snell was appointed as Pacofs’ acting CEO in April 2021.

Her controversial predecessor, Xaba, was removed from the top post but was retained in the artistic director position. Nqodi tells OFM News they are awaiting a report on the allegations levelled against Xaba that will reveal whether he will be completely sacked from the institution or not.

Nqodi says the report needs to be presented to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts, and Culture before the artists can know the outcome of Xaba’s fate at Pacofs.

Nearly seven months since Nqodi and company staged the sit-in, they are yet to be shown the report. It is not yet known if the committee is in possession of such a report. 

OFM News