Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Mr Mninwa Mahlangu
Honourable Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Joe Phaahla
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
Representatives of South African Local Government Association
MECs of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation
Director-General 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 2011/12 budget vote to the National Council of Provinces.
Honourable Chairperson, in about six months from now the oldest liberation movement in Africa, the African National Congress, will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
This will be a celebration by all the people of South Africa, Africa and the world because the ANC was formed to unite South Africans in particular, Africa and the Diaspora.
This celebration will be an acknowledgement of the many years of selfless people’s struggles towards freedom, dignity and equality for all.
Honourable Members, the 100th Anniversary of the ANC is an important part of our liberation heritage, which we must preserve for current and future generations.
As we preserve this part of our heritage, we must also be reminded of that seminal document of our people, the Freedom Charter, which up to this day continues to guide the work of the African National Congress inside and outside government.
We must continue to strive towards building the kind of society envisaged by those visionaries who adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. Indeed by 2055, the Centenary of the Freedom Charter, we must have made significant strides towards achieving the objectives of the Charter.
Building a prosperous and socially inclusive society
Honourable Members, part of what needs to be done to build the kind of society envisaged by those visionaries in 1955, is to continue strengthening efforts aimed at nation building and promoting social cohesion.
An integral part of these efforts is to advance the economic empowerment of our people.
In particular, we will continue to strengthen the contribution of the arts, culture and heritage sector to the national goal of creating more decent jobs and building sustainable livelihoods, especially for practitioners in this sector.
It is for this reason that our National Consultative Summit on the Contribution of the Arts, Culture and Heritage sector to the economy, held in April this year, took a number of far reaching resolutions.
These resolutions seek to ensure that this sector contributes to the economic advancement of all South Africans.
In this regard, I wish to refer to the declaration of this historic summit; “Our culture and heritage are key to nation building and social cohesion, and these are the ingredients for creating a climate of social stability and economic growth”.
This declaration was made in recognition of the reality that societies with a greater degree of social cohesion are often more economically prosperous.
Honourable Members, the more than 1 000 delegates at the summit resolved that we should create an Art Bank, launch a Public Art Programme; establish cultural precincts in all provinces starting in Mangaung, the birth place of the ANC in 1912.
A tour company will be established to support exhibitions and performances to tour locally and internationally
Summit also resolved to continue with the implementation of the National Liberation Heritage Route project; which will tell the stories of our liberation struggle from across the length and breadth of our country and beyond.
Summit committed to initiating a process that will lead to the establishment of a National Skills Academy for the Arts.
We reiterate that the National Skills Academy for the arts will not replace existing training initiatives in provinces but will strengthen them and coordinate their work.
Honourable Members, we are delighted to announce that the implementation of some of the resolutions of summit is well underway.
This includes the establishment of multi stakeholder task teams and ongoing discussions with provinces and municipalities to ensure joint implementation of these resolutions.
As agreed at summit and in order to ensure the buy in and cooperation of all provincial stakeholders in the implementation of summit resolutions, we urge all MECs of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation to hold provincial report back sessions on the outcomes of the summit.
Promotion of arts education in schools
Honourable Members, the summit resolved that we should work with the Department of Basic Education to develop interventions in the education system to bring back arts educations into our schools.
We are in discussion with Minister Motshekga in this regard.
These interventions will include the provision of resources and support for both learners and educators in the arts.
They will also identify and nurture artistic talent at an early age, promote the arts as a career of choice as well as develop an appreciation of the arts by learners and therefore contribute to audience development.
We look forward to working with all provinces as we implement this important resolution that will contribute to the sustainability of our sector.
Realignment of funding
Honourable Members, the path we have crafted for the arts, culture and heritage sector requires that we re-evaluate the manner in which we fund this sector.
In this regard, we will be readjusting our budget to fund the outcomes of the summit.
We will do this because the priorities we identified at the summit speak directly to job creation; which is the primary focus of the work of government in the next five years.
Honourable Members, we will in the coming months submit detailed plans to receive funding from the R 9 billion jobs fund, announced by the President earlier this year.
We will also take advantage of the support measures for our sector, in particular the crafts, music, jewellery production, clothing, leather, footwear and textiles made available in terms of the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 (IPAP 2).
In addition we are working with the National Lottery Distribution Board to streamline funding for our sector from the National Lottery.
Honourable Chairperson, we are raising all of these to encourage provinces and municipalities to budget adequately for the arts, culture and heritage sector.
We must work together to prevent arts, culture and heritage infrastructure from either becoming white elephants or becoming dilapidated due to lack of maintenance.
Geographical names
Honourable Members, just over a week ago, we convened a national workshop on geographical names.
This workshop marked an important milestone in the ongoing process of us as a nation developing a common identity as defined by the places we live in and how we name them.
We are encouraged that the workshop reiterated that the process of name standardisation does not seek to obliterate the history of a certain section of our society.
Rather this process is aimed at building a society that all South Africans can call a home, a society at peace with itself.
As the Freedom Charter says South Africa belongs to all who live in it; black and white.
Going forward, we will continue to work with all Provincial Geographical Names Council to ensure that the process of name standardisation is inclusive and is reflective of the will of the people.
Building capacity to implement our programme
Honourable Members, we now have a new Director-General (DG), Mr Sibusiso Xaba.
The appointment of the DG, is part of our ongoing work to strengthen the capacity of the department and its agencies to deliver on our mandate.
We have also inaugurated the Boards of the National Arts Council, the National Film and Video Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Museum and the South African Geographical Names Council.
We are moving with speed to inaugurate all the outstanding boards of our institutions
Our intention is to appoint all outstanding boards by the end of this financial year.
We thank all provinces for contributing towards the nomination and appointment process of board Members. We, however, caution that provincial nominations into Boards must be guided by the need to ensure equity in all our boards, including women participation.
Mandela Week
Honourable Members, the Department of Arts and Culture will this year work with the Office of the Chief Whip, the Limpopo Provincial Government and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to host the commemorations of Nelson Mandela Week, with the main event being Mandela Day on 18 July.
This year, in celebration of Mandela Week and Day we once again call upon South Africans to dedicate 67 minutes of their time to make a change in somebody’s life and in their communities.
The Mandela Week and Day celebrations will also contribute to our goal of nation building and the strengthening of a common national identity and patriotism.
As part of these celebrations, the Department of Arts and Culture will donate books to schools and libraries, beautify public spaces and promote the flying of the national flag in all public schools, public institutions and indeed private households.
We trust that all provinces will join in these celebrations as we pay tribute to and defend the proud legacy of our icon uBab’u Nelson Mandela.
Conclusion
Honourable Chairperson, I take this opportunity to thank Members of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation for their oversight on the work of the Department of Arts and Culture.
I also wish to thank MECs and provincial Departments of Arts and Culture for working well with us as we together build this nation and promote social cohesion.
I would also like to thank all our Boards and Councils, the CEOs and staff of our agencies and institutions for their hard work.
Lastly, I wish to thank Deputy Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, the Director-General, the managers and staff of the Department of Arts and Culture, for their hard work and for ensuring that we remain focused on the tasks at hand.
Ngiyabonga!
Enquires:
Mack Lewele
Cell: 082 450 5076
