Last week, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane met with the two parties respectively. Since then Public Protector South Africa announced plans to mediate between artists and the National Arts Council. The Public Protector argued that if the council had implemented remedial action last year, they would not be in this predicament. On Wednesday, 28 April 2021, the Public Protector South Africa announced its plans to mediate in the two-month-long dispute between artists and the National Arts Council and the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. Since 3 March 2021, artists have been staging a sit-in at the NAC offices in Johannesburg. This, after they reached out to the council asking them for details on what went wrong with the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) which the government had encouraged artists to apply for in October of 2020.