According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition party, more than 14,000 objects, artefacts and art works have been stolen from South Africa's museums, galleries, churches and other heritage institutions in the past four years. DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard was speaking in the National Assembly during debate on the Arts and Culture budget vote, when she said the management of the department responsible for South Africa's cultural treasures was in a shambles. The last Auditor-General's report had found many problems, including assets misplaced, not recorded, incorrectly recorded or missing.
Pierneef's "Near Golden Gate" painting, valued at R5-million, was ripped off a wall at the SABC in Johannesburg in 2005. Seventeenth century ceramics from Cape Town are also missing. A Moses Seleko sculpture, The Gumboot Dance, was stolen in Pretoria in 2005. Two paintings by Gerard Sekoto, The Gardener and Hotela Bantu, were stolen from an Eastern Cape university.
Kohler-Barnard asked Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, "Minister, why aren't you doing your job? Why is it that you keep on and on repeating the same mistakes, hiring utterly incompetent staff?" Speaking at the end of the debate, Jordan rebuked Kohler-Barnard for speaking "as if she is the champion of the arts community". He made no reference to the disappearance of art works from institutions, and said the DA had a "schizophrenic attitude" towards his department.