Address by Minister of Sport, Arts And Culture, Zizi Kodwa on the occasion of Budget Vote Debate 2023/24
House Chairperson
Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Hon Nocawe Mafu
Ministers and other Deputy Ministers here present
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Sport, Arts and Culture Hon Beauty Dlulane
Honourable Members
Chairpersons and Chief Executives of Public Entities
Distinguished Guests
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Fellow South Africans, the Democratic State is charged with the responsibility to discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our sport and cultural life. Conditions must be created for access to sporting and cultural treasures of humanity.
Right from the dawn of democracy we as the democratic government, have been seized with this objective of remaking South Africa into a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. Sport and the arts have become the defining characteristic of those efforts towards nation building and Social Cohesion. The ultimate goal in all our endeavours as the sport, arts, culture and heritage fraternity is to ensure that progressively South Africa becomes a socially integrated and inclusive society.
We are making a steady progress towards the realisation of this objective.
The recent sporting and cultural achievements bear testimony to this.
In the last financial year South Africans from all walks of life celebrated the victories scored on the sporting front and highest achievements by our cultural workers. They have firmly put South Africa on the global map.
Banyana-Banyana won the 2022 edition of Women’s African Cup of Nations in Morocco. This win could not have come at a better time. Our people were still reeling from the effects of Covid-19. This win lifted the mood of our country. it communicated the message that we are a people of resilience and unending determination to conquer obstacles along the way. South Africans regained their confidence.
In the last quarter of the past financial year, South Africa had the honour of hosting the International Cricket Council’s Women’s T20 World Cup. At this event the Women’s Proteas Cricket Team made history by becoming the first ever South African Team to make it to the final of a World Cup. They came second best.
The trio of Nomcebo Zikode, Zakes Bantwini and Wouter Kellerman brought home the Grammy Award. Once more this demonstrated in no uncertain terms the quality of work the South African creatives produce.
The enormous potential of sport is the fact that it is increasingly being recognised around the world. It empowers and promotes the inclusion of marginalised groups, especially women, the youth, rural communities, and people with disabilities.
Sport contributes hugely to the GDP of the country particularly through Sport Tourism catalysed either through domestic and international sport events It is for this reason that the Department has enabled the sport federations to host numerous international sport events in South Africa during the 2022 / 2023 financial year as a contribution to the economic recovery post COVID-19 . In the last financial year alone, sport contributed the following to the GDP:
- The South African Rugby Union indicates that their Economic Impact Assessment for the Springboks vs Wales Rugby match held in Cape Town in July 2022 saw an amount of R166.9 million in direct expenditure in Cape Town.
- The match between South Africa and New Zealand held in Mbombela, August 2022 generated R112,3 million in direct expenditure in Mpumalanga.
- There was a record attendance at the 2022 Rugby Sevens World Cup held in Cape Town, with more than 105,000 record attendance between 09 and 11 September 2022. with an estimated direct contribution was R765 million to the GDP as reported by the SARU.
- The Cape Town ePrix: (Formula E) event held on the 25 February 2023 was the first Formula E race to be held in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Southern and East African Tourism Update publication the event contributed R2.13 billion to South Africa’s economy.
During the financial year 2023 / 2024 the Department would continue to enable and support Federations to host international sport. To this end a number of international sport events have been approved to be hosted in South Africa.
- City of Tshwane will host the World Masters Rowing Regatta.
- The Individual World Table Tennis Championships will be held at the Durban ICC.
- The U20 Rugby World Cup will be held in Cape Town.
- The Commonwealth Judo Championships will be held in Gqeberha.
- The inaugural Down Syndrome World Gymnastics Championships will be held in the City of Tshwane.
In 80 days, South Africa plays host to the Netball World Cup from 28 July to 06 August 2023, demonstrating the commitment to the advancement of sport, particularly for women in the country. This is another historical moment as it is the first time that this event is hosted on the African soil.
This all-female event will also have an all-female television crew. Major progress has been made with the preparations for the Netball World Cup with several milestones already celebrated, such as the launch of Netball Fridays.
The Netball World Cup 2023 Trophy tour will kick off in KwaZulu-Natal on Africa Day, 25 May 2023, travelling through all Provinces, and ending in the Western Cape, Cape Town on 12 July 2023.
In addition to the above hosted events the international sport calendar for 2023 / 2024 will be busy with South African Teams participating in the following international events;
- FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand from 20 July - 20 August 2023
- Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from 04 to 11 August 2023
- Rugby World Cup to be held in France from 08 September - 28 October 2023
- The 13th African Games to be held in three cities in Ghana from 08 to 23 March 2024
During the 2022 / 2023 financial year South Africa’s Women athletes dominated the international scene which saw the Department recognizing Banyana-Banyana for their excellent performance as they were crowned Champions of the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
The ultimate recognition of excellence was during the 16th edition of South African Sport Awards recently held at Sun City where history was made as the Sports Star of the Year award went to a female football athlete Ms Andile Dlamini.
The Department will continue to collaborate with the G Sport Foundation in recognizing South African Women in Sport through the G-Sport Awards held annually during Women’s Month.
Whilst celebrating the milestones achieved, the Department pledged dedicated financial support to Cricket South Africa over the next three years to establish a Women’s Cricket League which will go a long way in the professionalization of Women’s Cricket.
Clubs are the fundamental building blocks or primary units in sport development continuum. Coming as they do at the lowest rung of the hierarchy of sport structures, they are in the closest proximity and in the most advantageous position in any community to add value and to make a difference in the lives of citizens.
A club is generally regarded as the foundation of structured sport in South Africa. A blueprint will be developed that will guide all provinces on the Club Development Programme. We currently invest over R118 million of the Conditional Grant Allocation towards the Club Development Programme. National Federations (NFs) must take responsibility to ensure that the growth of their sport is supported by a well-developed club system.
We are firm in our belief that, for any country to prosper in Sport, it must be rooted in the strong foundation of development at grassroots, and as such sport in schools is the bedrock of our sport in South Africa.
We had allocated R229 million from the Conditional Grant to School Sport. The MOU with Department of Basic Education has been finalised; and Minister of DBE and myself will be signing this soon.
Through the Sport Ambassador’s Programme, we hope to see the school sport leagues being fully rolled out and mentored by our Sport Ambassadors. With full participation of the sports ambassadors.
We were able to successfully host the Winter Championships in July 2022 in seven sporting codes and two Indigenous Games. The Winter Games had 52% male representation and 48% female representation.
The total number of athletes with disability who took part at the Winter Games was 322 representing 17% of the total participants.
The Summer Championships took place in December 2022 with provinces competing in 7 sporting codes and 2 Indigenous Games. It was pleasing to note that 52% were female athletes with 48% of male athletes. These games were so inclusive that although the national prevalence of people with disability is 7.5%, the summer games had a total representation of 28% athletes with disability.
All nine provinces sent their top two schools who competed to represent the country at the CAF Schools Football Tournament. The winners for this segment were Edendale Technical High (Girls) and Clapham High School (Boys). We wish to congratulate both schools for winning the National Tournament and further representing South Africa at the COSAFA and CAF Schools Tournament.
They went all the way to the finals losing on penalties against Guinea. We say well done Clapham High School for flying the South African flag high. We are indeed proud of you and in you we see the future Bafana-Bafana and global stars.
In 2024 we hope to increase learners’ access to sport at schools by supporting 75 000 learners to participate in district school sport championships and 5 000 learners in the national school sport championship, and by providing equipment and attire to 2 500 schools, hubs, and clubs. Over the Medium term, 275 000 learners would have participated in district School Sport Championships and 20 000 in National School Sport Championships by March 2024.
Public Entities
To ensure the existence of an infrastructure enabling the achievement of our mandate in the Arts, Culture and Heritage sector, the department allocated R193 million to 16 Entities to implement infrastructure projects ranging from construction, upgrading, refurbishment and maintenance of their facilities. Beyond the transfer of these funds for Entities, the Department also provides construction project management support to ensure effective implementation of their infrastructure development projects.
In this financial year, the department has allocated R252 million through the ring-fenced Municipal Infrastructure Grant(MIG) to 29 municipalities for construction of sport facilities.
One of the beneficiaries of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant {MIG} funding is the Umlalazi Local Municipality. A project approved in this Municipality is the construction of Tap-Tap Makhathini Boxing Centre which is an initiative to honour a well celebrated, local living boxing legend Mr Elijah Xulu [affectionately known as “Tap Tap Makhathini] His dream is to contribute to the development of boxing, especially in his community, and promote it as one of the most attractive and preferred sporting codes. Consultations with Mr Xulu and stakeholders started from as far back as May 2022.
We are delighted that the allocation of R15m for this project has been approved and gazetted and we look forward to see the completion of this exciting development.
10 outdoor gyms and children play-parks will be built, and the majority of these will be in rural areas under the jurisdiction of traditional authorities to ensure that rural communities are not deprived of opportunities and services offered by these facilities. I will be launching the first one in Kwa-Ndamase, eNyandeni Great Place in June 2023. A total budget of R5 million has been allocated for these facilities.
Over and above the provision of outdoor gyms, my Department in consultation with the Kings and Queens will be declaring Great Places as heritage sites of historical significance.
Whilst the 2020 mapping study shows that, the direct impact of the CCI’s (Cultural and Creative Industries) in 2018 was R74.39 billion, which accounts for 1.7% of South Africa’s GDP, in 2022 this contribution is R161 billion, accounting for almost 3% of South Africa’s GDP. The creative economy’s contribution accounts for 6% of all employment in South Africa. The mandate of the South African Cultural Observatory has been extended to conduct similar for Sport.
Cabinet approved the Cultural Creative Industry Masterplan in August 2022. Following that, the department conducted Provincial sessions, in ALL provinces, to enable all stakeholders to input into the Implementation Plan., This has been finalised and short to medium plans as depicted in the CCI Masterplan will be implemented as of this financial year.
The Debut Fund programme targets young creatives and aims to provide these creatives a start-up and a chance for them to take their products and services to market.
I am happy to announce that the Business Arts South Africa Debut programme has produced 24 solid creative arts entrepreneurs, with 300 creatives being exposed to this Program. The graduates have been enlisted for the Debut Accelerator Programme.
One of the beneficiaries of this Program, Kganya Mogashoa says: "Thank you for making my dream a reality. It's great to create but even greater to run a lucrative art business. My heart is fuller than full."
The roll out to take on a new crop of young creatives onto this Program will commence with recruitment country wide, this financial year.
Film and Documentaries
involves highly creative activities wherein a task is given to arts practitioners to produce 10 short documentaries of unsung African heroes and heroines. Last financial year, this culminated in the production of an anthology titled “Not all heroes wear Capes”. These documentaries will be showcased during the Heritage Month in the current financial year. A budget of R5m has been allocated to this program.
Arts and Culture Academies and Incubator Programs
The department recognises the need to continuously ensure capacity development amongst the creatives. This is done through Academies where we partner with legends in the Industry to impart the skills and experience that they themselves gained and accumulated over years.
There is the National Academy of Africa’s Performing Arts, which is the initiative of Caiphus and Letta Semenya and is almost complete with minor touch-ups on construction, supported by the Department. It will offer a professional arts training in music, dance and drama.
The other programme is run by Sello Maake ka Ncube, a veteran in the theatre sector.
While Thato Molamu, a young creative director and a celebrated actor who refers to himself as a social entrepreneur, runs “The Leaders In Motion Academy” which is in the film and digital space.
The Mambazo Mobile Academy is run by the multiple Grammy Award winners, Ladysmith Black Mambazo which was the brainchild and vision of the late Joseph Shabalala, amongst others.
Our Capacity development Programs are not just focusing on the Performing arts cultural domain; but we also have others in the non-performing space, such as Igoda Fashion design; Creative and Technology Hub, etc. These Programs together with the Incubator Programs run by seven of our Cultural institutions throughout the country, have a budget of R35m.
Community Arts Centre Development Program
is recognised as being the bedrock of development of the creative industry We see Community Arts Centres as being the pipeline to performing arts institutions and the academies, the global platforms. In addition to the R30m budget that went to this Program in 2022/23; for the first time my department gave provinces an additional budget to hold Provincial Indabas; giving the Community Arts Centre management and practitioners opportunity to contribute to the development of their Program.
This financial year we will be holding a National Indaba, that will ensure an integrated Program for more than 250 Community Arts Centres in the country.
A budget of R36m to support Community Arts Centres has been allocated.
An additional R20.5m has been set aside for upgrading of Community Arts Centres, mostly in rural areas.
Policy development
The Department has finalised the theatre and dance policy which is now before the relevant Cabinet Committee. There is also a number of policies to be developed this financial year, as depicted in the Revised White Paper of Arts, Culture and Heritage; this includes the Books and Publishing policy, visual arts policy, design policy, and we have also embarked in the standardisation of policy including the Mzansi Golden Economy funding.
Once again the Department is pleased to announce that it will take South African authors to participate at the 2023 Gothenburg Book Fair in Sweden, following the 2022 successful participation as Guest of honour at the Book Fair, where more than 20 authors and publishers from SA participated. Amongst those authors are the following: Prof Wally Serote, Sindi Magona; Ntandokayise Kunene and Thokozani Dyosini. The latter are young co-authors of the book “Cory in the Universe”, a Children’s book on Covid-19.
Apart from this, access to international platforms are also made possible through Cultural Seasons program. This financial year we are taking our creatives to Egypt and Zambia. Such platforms create an enabling environment for the creatives, to network and grow their businesses.
This program which is giving market access to local and international platforms includes the Beautiful Things project where we give opportunities to visual artists, crafters, sculptors and other such creatives, to gain skills but even more importantly have their artwork showcased to the public. More than 40 producers stand to benefit from this Program with a budget of R6.7m. The aim is to make this an annual feature to ensure a wider scope, enhance inclusion of more crafters and allow for wider reach of potential markets.
The Department, as of April 2023 has set up a permanent craft exhibition and craft outlet at the Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria, at the Sammy Marks Square. The exhibition and outlet are being managed as an incubator programme by the South African Creative Industries and open daily from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 16:30, and on Saturdays from 9:00 to 13:00.
The exhibition and craft outlet contain stock which represents support to craft producers who have supplied products to the project. The project is looking to expand the product offering at the exhibition and outlet over the next few months by spending a ± R 1 million to procure more product from craft producers all over country. This activity will be underpinned by ongoing capacity building by the incubator to suppliers in the areas of products improvement, costing and pricing and packaging. The project is strategically located in the Pretoria CBD to give access to government and corporate clients to access corporate gifts, while also targeting the public in general.
The Silapha wellness: intervention is about the wellbeing of athletes and artists, be it on mental health, legal matters, financial management, amongst others. Since its launch in 2020/ 2021, where it started off as a pilot, 2190 artists and athletes were reached. Of these, 518 used the Call centre services. The response during the pilot indicated that there is a dire need for this service; hence the department has commenced with a three year program, to ensure that those that bring entertainment to your homes, also are taken care of.
Creating jobs: The Presidential Employment Stimulus Package Phase 4:
The Department has been allocated a budget of R462 million this financial year, to continue creating jobs in the Cultural and Creative Industry. A total of 40 000 jobs will be created through the employment multiplier model used to create jobs in this industry.
Last financial year, which was R440m more than 30 000 jobs were created The implementers of this Program are the National Arts Council, the National Film and Video Foundation, the National Museum, the National Heritage Council and Business Arts of South Africa.
The implementation is closely monitored by the newly formed Project Management Unit in the department that works closely with a similar Unit in the Presidency and plays oversight. This financial year we have added R20 Million of this towards the employment of 120 unemployed youth to assist in the digitisation of archival collections and newsreels. This process will be implemented by NFVF working with the National Archives of South Africa (NARSSA).
Arts and Culture (Creative) Ambassadors
I have taken a decision to have a program in the Creative industry, similar to the Sport Ambassador Program. Ambassadors in the Creative industry will of course take into account the uniqueness of this industry, and my department have finalised a draft framework that outlines how this Program will work.
I am honoured to be joined on-line by some of these ambassadors like uMama Lillian Dube and Florence Masebe.
Celebrating our own
I have recently recognised Grammy Award Winners for their work that raised the South African flag high amongst the nations of the world. This recognition was not only for the latest winners but since the first recipient of the award, Miriam Makeba who won it in 1966.
I have instructed my Departmental officials to develop Creative industry awards similar to Sport excellent awards.
Further, the department is pursuing opportunities to bring the Grammy Awards to South Africa to profile artists and create market access opportunities.
To this end The Recording Academy has subsequently submitted a Memorandum of Understanding, which we consulting on with the industry role players. This will result in formalising the establishment of the African Grammys chapter, with South Africa as the Headquarters.
Ensuring that the industry is regulated
Upon joining the department I have come to realise the level of exploitation of our creatives by producers and agencies, and the urgent need to have this industry regulated so that we do not have artists who do not benefit from their work; who do not get their well-deserved royalties and sign contracts that grossly short change them. This is why I have engaged seriously with relevant parties to ensure that the two Bills, the Copyright amendment Bill and the Performers Protection Bill are passed, and there is a commitment that this will be done by the end of May.
International Relations
Through international collaborations, partnerships, and cooperation the Department will continue to facilitate access to international platform and markets for South Africans to show case their talents and skills to a wide international audience.
We have localised Pan Africanism through Africa Month celebrations. The 2023 Africa Month Celebration is aimed to track and reflect on progress and achievements made by the African Continent to realize Aspiration 5 of the African Union Agenda 2063. Various activities will be held across the country.
South Africa has assumed the Chairpersonship for BRICS 2023. Over and above this, the DSAC will host the BRICS Ministers of Culture and Sports meetings, BRICS Games and the BRICS Film Festival for 2023.
Through these engagements we aim to strengthen and promote People to People exchange as part of the BRICS forum.
Social Cohesion Advocates
Through Community Conversations, we will continue to engage communities in pertinent social cohesion issues such as racism, class, inequality, exclusion, solidarity, unity, respect, and trust. Platforms for promoting Social Cohesion and Nation building will continue through the Social Cohesion Advocates in their various areas of work and work streams. Working in partnership with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development plus other development partners, we will endeavour to develop the Early Warning System and the Rapid Response System.
Prioritising Target Groups
It is important before I conclude, Chairperson, that I highlight that my department has prioritised target groups, i.e. Youth, Women and People with disabilities. There are specific interventions in the department’s Annual Performance Plan for this financial year. I would like to highlight that I will be launching one such program in June 2023 where 250 young creatives will be placed in Community Arts Centre across the country, a Program addressing youth unemployment while supporting the creative industry at grassroots level.
There are 300 artists placed in schools to support educators by bringing the practical part of Cultural and creative industry; we also provide bursaries to students studying heritage and language fields at Higher Education Institutions.
Women also get prioritised through various program as well as people with disabilities. Specifically for the artists with disabilities we have the “ We can” Program that has been extended to be more than just a Festival but includes skills development and master class programs that stand to benefit 200 artists with disabilities throughout the country. All these interventions are outlined in the Annual Performance Plan.
Filling of vacancies
Upon my arrival at the department; I have ensured that the filling of the Director General position is prioritised. This post was advertised in different platforms this past weekend. Over and above that I have instructed my department to come up with a concrete strategy and measures to fill all vacant posts in the department, as a matter of priority.
I thank you.
