Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Mninwa Mahlangu
Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Joe Phaahla
Minister of Sports and Recreation Minister Mr Fikile Mbalula
The Honourable Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation Ms Wendy Makgathe and Members of the Committee
Honourable Delegates to the National Council of Provinces
MECs of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation
Director General, Sibusiso Xaba and Senior managers from the Department of Arts and Culture and our Institutions
Ladies and gentlemen:
Introduction
It gives us great pleasure to present the Department of Arts and Culture’s 2012/2013 Budget Vote to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
Honourable Chairperson, we present our budget during of the Youth Month commemorations.
This is a month in which we honour and pay tribute to those brave young people who occupied the foremost trenches in our struggle for national liberation.
Their only motivation was the un-ending belief that victory against the Apartheid was certain.
Youth in the arts
Honourable delegates, the youth are an important stakeholder in the arts, culture and heritage sector.
Not only do they make up a significant portion of those who participate in our sector, it is they, who bring the new energy, innovation and creativity that is so critical to the survival and sustainability of our sector.
As an indication of our ongoing commitment to the development of young people in our sector, we are pleased to report that our Mzansi Golden Economy Strategy, with a number of high impact programmes targets the youth.
These include, our Public Art programme, which targets young people across the country to use their energies, creativity and innovation to beautify public spaces and tell the stories of their communities.
Working together with the Field Band Foundation and provinces, we are mobilising the youth throughout the country to be part of a broader national movement of field bands.
We are also working with provincial governments to implement the “Trendsetter Initiative” through which we encourage youth to participate in the arts and thus contribute to the development of their communities.
We continue to support the Thuthuka Jewellery Design initiative, where the youth from across the country are given opportunities to showcase and improve their jewellery manufacturing and design skills. This is part of growing the cultural industries.
This programme has continued to grow from strength to strength and has set itself a target of attracting youth from five provinces by 2013. The ultimate goal is to reach youth in all provinces.
This year we funded the Emerging Creatives programmes, which provided an opportunity for 40 young designers to show case their designs alongside major designers at the Design Indaba and the Eco Design International Project.
Honourable delegates, for this financial year, we have budgeted more than R 19 million for projects targeting young people in the arts.
Many of these programmes will be implemented jointly with provincial governments.
The year of heritage
Honourable delegates, as the Department of Arts and Culture, we have declared 2012 as the year of heritage.
During this year, we will increase our focus on preserving our country’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, paying particular attention on our liberation heritage.
As we undertake this work we will build museums, monuments and statues in honour of those who played a significant role in our struggle for national liberation.
This work will also include the upgrading and declaration of national heritage sites, places and graves of heroes and heroines of our national liberation struggle.
In honouring the legacy of the former President of the African National Congress (ANC), President OR Tambo, we are pleased to report that work is underway in his homestead in Nkantolo, in Bizana, where are building a museum, an interpretation centre and a statue.
An initial amount of R25 million has been set aside for this project and we expect to create 50 permanent jobs as well as 90 short term jobs.
Work is underway to upgrade and declare as a heritage sites the graves of Dr Beyers Naude and Robert Sobukwe in Graff Reinete.
In KwaZulu-Natal we launched the Dr John Langalibalele Dube Heritage Legacy project. This project will cost R60 million and is expected to create 270 jobs.
In Gauteng we have declared the graves of Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi and Charlotte Maxeke as national heritage sites.
We have also declared the Voortrekker Monument as a heritage site and have connected it with the Freedom Park by building a road linking the two institutions, as part of nation building, reconciliation and nation healing.
In September we will open the second phase of the Freedom Park Museum, !IXhapo, which will tell the South African history in its totality.
In the Western Cape we are working together with the Ray Alexander Simonds Memory Centre to build a museum and a community centre in Gugulethu that will celebrate and honour the contribution of workers in the national liberation struggle.
Honourable delegates, we have declared The Wesley Church in Waaihoek and the Maphikela House in Mangaung as national heritage sites.
We have also declared the house of former ANC President Joseph Makgatho and Braam Fischer as national heritage sites.
In honouring the heroines of our struggle, we have declared the site of the 1957 anti-pass women’s march in Zeerust as a heritage site.
Honourable delegates, the work we are doing is to preserve our liberation heritage.
We are increasing efforts to build new symbols of our democratic nation that reflect our shared heritage and the kind of future we aspire to.
This work is part of the Liberation Heritage Route, through which we will connect sites and individuals of significance and to our struggle for national liberation.
We take this opportunity to call on communities, local government and all provinces to work with us as we identify more sites that are of significance to our country’s liberation heritage.
Mzansi Golden Economy
Honourable delegates, as part of contribution to the national target of creating 5 million jobs within the next 10 years, we have launched the Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) Strategy, through which we expect to create more than 150 000 work opportunities over the next five years.
Since the launch of MGE, last year during COP 17 in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal we piloted the concept of a sourcing company.
This initiative created more than 8 000 direct work opportunities over a two week period, through the procurement of Conference bags, performances and other art products.
Working together with the Department of Basic Education we are making progress in bringing back arts education in schools.
Through this initiative we will deploy 3 000 full time art facilitators in schools throughout the country.
We have set aside more than R1,5 million for the Bokgabo Dikolong Visual Arts and Photography competition.
This competition will cover learners from all provinces and will be implemented jointly with the Department of Basic Education.
A total of R 600 000 has been set aside for the South African School Chorale Eisteddfod involving all provinces.
Honourable delegates, targeted support will be provided to major cultural events such as the Mangaung African Cultural Festival, the North West Calabash in Taung, the Diamonds and Dooring in Kimberly, the Joy of Jazz in Johannesburg, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Our goal is that, there must be at least one major signature event per province that we will support on an ongoing basis.
Through this initiative we are targeting a baseline of 2 000 work opportunities per event.
We are currently piloting five Cultural Precincts and Information Centres in five major cities.
As we proceed towards the establishment of the National Academy for the Cultural and Creative Industries of South Africa, (NACISA) we will continue to engage all provinces with a view to integrate and coordinate their arts training initiatives.
Social Cohesion
Honourable delegates, as indicated by President Zuma the Department of Arts and Culture has been mandated to organise a National Summit on Social Cohesion and Nation Building.
The summit will take place from 4 to 5 July 2012, at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown, Soweto.
We are deliberately convening this Summit in Kliptown, at the birth place of the Freedom Charter to reflect on progress made towards the kind of society envisaged in the Freedom Charter.
This is a society that truly belongs to all who live in it black and white united in their diversity.
The summit is also an opportunity for South Africans to enter into a dialogue about their shared values, shared aspirations and shared vision of a united South African nation.
We have been working with a number of stakeholders in the build-up to the summit.
These include civil society, churches, labour, traditional leaders, youth and women formations, sports and cultural institutions and government departments.
We take this opportunity to invite honourable members of the NCOP to participate at this important Social Cohesion Summit and assist us to build a socially inclusive society.
Thank you!
2012/13 Budget Vote Speech by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile, to the National Council of Provinces
