Programme Director,
Organisers of the festival,
Members of the Media,
Our artists here present,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have met here today to announce details of the artists that will be taking part in 13th edition of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
As the Department of Arts and Culture we are once more proud to be associated with this initiative.
Over the years the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has continued to bring together the best of our local musical talent with some of the best musical talent in the world.
We note that this festival continues to grow in stature and has become one of the major cultural events not only in the City of Cape Town, but also in our country and on the African Continent.
This event which we affectionately refer to as “Africa’s Grandest Gathering”, continues to be one of our country’s major local and international tourist attraction and an indication of our ability as a country to successfully host major international events.
We are encouraged that attendance numbers to this festival continue to increase and we hope this year we will have even more people coming to the festival.
This we say because the more people attend this festival and the more it grows from strength to strength, the more the festival will be able to make an even bigger contribution to the economy of the City of Cape Town and the entire Province of the Western Cape.
In addition to contributing to the economy of Cape Town and the Western Cape the festival, through its development programmes, contributes to building the necessary skills base required to sustain the growth of our sector.
These programmes include workshops whose purpose is to impart skills to young and upcoming local artist, technicians as well as arts journalists. Perhaps since we are today addressing members of the media it is worth emphasising that; included in the development programmes of the festival is the Arts Journalism course.
This course, which is unique in our country, is in its tenth anniversary this year. It is structured as a five day workshop that trains journalists and writers from all backgrounds in the importance of arts journalism. We think this is an important initiative that will go a long way in improving the quality of reporting about our sector.
This initiative will also support our efforts as the Department of Arts and Culture to reposition our sector and highlight its potential as a major driver of economic growth and job creation; while not losing sight of its equally important role of promoting social cohesion, nation building and national healing.
To us the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is about implementing our strategy of the Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE).
As we have said before through the MGE strategy we will work with all stakeholders to raise the profile of the arts, culture and heritage sector. We will restore the dignity of our sector and ensure that it occupies its rightful place in the development of our society
As we implement this strategy we will create the necessary conditions for our artists to build for themselves sustainable livelihoods using their artistic talent. As part of implementing MGE, we will also work with the Department of Basic Education to bring back arts education in schools.
This we will do with a view to support efforts aimed at audience development which we believe is critical to the long-term sustainability of our sector.
Programme Director, we are of the view that events such as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, the Mangaung Cultural Festival, the North West Calabash in Taung, the Diamonds and Dorings Festival in the Northern Cape and the Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg can play a major role not only in bringing people together but also in contributing to the local economies of the host cities.
It is for this reason that we will continue to support these and many other such festivals within the context of MGE. On behalf of the Department of Arts and Culture I wish the organisers a successful 2012 Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
Let this year’s festival prove once more that; cultural events of the calibre of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, are critical in advancing our national goals of skills development, job creation, economic growth as well as promoting an inclusive society.
Thank you!
