Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) for creative professionals in South Africa

Application Deadline: 30 November 2020

 National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) is calling on artists, athletes and recreation professions to apply for the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP), which aims to retain and create jobs in the arts, sports and culture sectors.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives and livelihoods has been both far reaching and devastating beyond what we could have imagined. It is this recognition that has prompted government to continue working on ways and interventions to mitigate the negative impact on the sectors.

The President, on 16 October 2020, announced to the National Assembly, a range of measures that would be initiated to set the country on a new path of growth. Amongst these measures were the employment stimulus programme. This stimulus programme presents another exciting opportunity in the renewal and reimagination of the creative industries.

It is against the above brief background that as of today, 30 October 2020 the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture announces further relief to targeted sectors in the sport, cultural and creative industries. It is envisioned that this programme will be rolled out for a period of four months.

This open call is aimed at soliciting proposals from the sector that demonstrate opportunities to create WORK in order to get income flowing and to get the sector moving; as part of the reconstruction and recovery of the economy. The PESP acts here as an aggressive injection of income into the economy that enables ambitious proposals that create opportunities for employment and collaboration. These kinds of projects energise the entire value chain and get the multiplier effect to kick in.

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the National Arts Council (NAC) and the Sports Trust are the three entities/agencies of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, through which the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme will be administered.

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), open call will focus on the Audio-Visual Industry whilst the National Arts Council (NAC), aims to fund projects that will create the necessary platform to have as a spin of as many as 15 000 for the open call and 10 000 for job retention combined for the two entities in a sector that has been hard hit by job and income losses during the national lockdown.

The Sports Trust will focus on proposals aimed towards job retention within the sport sector.

The Presidential Stimulus Programme aims to assist practitioners and their projects as well as companies that incurred losses (actual and planned/existing, new and those that were at concept stage) during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

The closing date for submissions to both entities are different and are as follows: NAC closing date for Stream 1: 20 November 2020

NAC closing date for Stream 2 is 27 November 2020

For NFVF the closing date is 30 November at 17:00

For Sports Trust the closing date is 13 November 2020

For more detailed information about the arts and culture disciplines that will be covered, and to apply for the economic stimulus package, visit www.dac.gov.za , www.srsa.gov.za, www.nac.org.za and www.nfvf.co.za.

For enquiries, kindly contact the following: 087 7000 683/ [email protected] and  011 483 0880/ [email protected]

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the NAC Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme