Honourable Premier Mrs Nomvula Paaula Mokonyane,
Head of Department Mrs Namhla Siqaza,
Creative Industry activists and practitioner,
Ladies and gentlemen of the media,
Distinguished guests.
Today I have the singular honour of welcoming you to the Gauteng Creative Industries Indaba. This morning I have a simple task of welcoming you, the distinguished delegates to the Creative Industries Indaba; and yet the task is daunting because according to the programme I must also say something with regard to the overview.
Accordingly I must declare from the outset that this Indaba is long overdue and this is reflected in the magnitude of the issues on the agenda. Our task today is therefore twofold:
One: As you would know that with every imitative of this nature come expectations out of the decisions that we will take. But again I am certain that you will agree with me that in order for us to make these decisions there must be some knowledge that forms a basis of such decisions.
As such the provincial government has undertaken some work in a bid to understand the state of the industry. We have in the past conducted what we referred to as the Creative Mapping Project, extensive research has also been conducted in the music, performing arts and craft sectors.
As a consequence of the work we have been conducting over time we have emerged with a number of policy documents that in our view should form part of the conversation between government and the creative industries sector.
The second point then: The second point relates to the task and the burden of the Indaba we are having today. I am sure many would agree that from time to time we have meetings of this nature and more often the challenge is that decisions are never implemented or taken forward and therefore form part of archive material that is proof that once upon a time Lebogang Maile was MEC and Mfundi Vundla was chair of some task team that is yet to see the light of day.
Given that it is us as human beings, as activists who do these things; surely the responsibility to change the state of affairs rests squarely on our shoulders – otherwise we run the risk of being armchair activists and the result of that is that history will be harsh in passing judgement.
Over the past few years film has had the upper hand with regard to receiving support from government in a manner that is coordinated and institutionalised by way of the Gauteng Film Commission.
The formation of the Film Commission was an appropriate step as part of the recognition of the important role culture and heritage play in the development of any society. In later years there was even more recognition of the role of film in contributing to economic development, job creation skills development and social cohesion.
At present we have presented a case the basis of which is the Gauteng Creative Industries Framework as approved by the Executive Council in 2005. The objective is a simple one and that is – we want Gauteng to be the preferred destination for major cultural events. Put paraphrase the Gauteng Film Commission’s pay of line: it must be a place of big ideas because we have the perfect locations.
As a consequence of the view we have taken – we have since decided that it is equally critical that such a thought of establishing an all-encompassing Gauteng Creative Industries Commission warrants a conversation of this nature.
The Gauteng Creative Industries Framework has the following to say about what needs to be done:
- to develop creative industries to maximise their contribution to the economy, community development and urban regeneration;
- to provide a coordinating framework for investment and implementation in the province; and
- to explicitly align creative industries activities with the Gauteng Growth and Development Strategy,
- The development of this framework was, inter-alia, informed by the following policy frameworks and legal imperatives:
- The White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage which commits government to making an impact on economic growth, development and tourism through targeting the development of the cultural industries.
- The Cultural Industries Growth Strategy (CIGS) which outlines key interventions necessary for the growth of the sectors.
- The Culture Institutions Act of 1998 which provides for the payment of subsidies to certain cultural institutions; provides for the establishment of certain institutions as declared cultural institutions under the control of councils and establishes a National Museums division.
The Gauteng Creative Industries Development Framework identified a range of sector specific initiatives that are critical in achieving the objective in developing the creative industries to maximise their contribution to the economy, community development and urban regeneration.
One of the sector specific initiatives is the development of sub-sector strategies, namely:
- Craft
- Visual arts
- Performing Arts
- Music.
It is within this context that the department has developed the above the sub-sector strategies. The strategies are the basis of the conversation we are having today. A conversation that we firmly believe will culminate into a journey that will see us undergoing a fundamental transformation process based on our collective aspirations of building this industry.
As such the Indaba must emerge with a tangible plan of action that will also see to it that we unearth new talent by extending the frontiers of opportunity. The creative economy possesses so much potential and therefore creative workers cannot be seen as a social burden. This is a sector that contributes over R33 billion to the province’s economy every year, and creates direct employment for more than 60,000 people in over 11,000 firms.
The largest sectors in terms of numbers of entities (both commercial and non-profit) are design (25%), craft (21%), audio-visual (11%), music (11%) and visual arts (10%).
It is this potential that must propel us to strive for:
- the empowerment of creative Workers through education, up skilling and re-skilling the creative workforce
- creative Industries by investing in innovation and growth and the promotion and exposure of final products and services
- creative Clusters through partnerships and collaboration with ‘centres of excellence’ for the delivery of most of the interventions
- creative Communities by developing community based cultural planning leading to integration of the creative economy into Integrated Development Plan (IDPs).
May the pioneering spirit of Gauteng reign in this Indaba – today we are taking the extraordinary step once again of taking a lead in changing the face of the industry, we are building a legacy and a heritage for successive generations who will be inspired by the work we are doing.
Thank you!
