2006/07
2 June 2006
Madame Speaker,
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable members,
The governmentâs medium term strategy framework, reflecting the mandate
given to us by the people of South Africa at the last general elections,
focuses on three areas:
* the need to accelerate growth and promote an equitable economic
development of our country and its people
* stepping up efforts to achieve social cohesion and to nurture national
identity, to realise the goals of non-racialism, non-sexism through a deepening
and expansion of democracy;
* installing robust mechanisms and systems to monitor and evaluate progress
on all objectives, strategies and plans of government in relation to the above
priorities
The strategies, plans and expenditure commitments of the Department of Arts
and Culture (DAC) proceed from this medium term framework and seek to align its
budgetary patterns with it. This speaks directly to needs of the majority of
our people who mandated us to govern, manage the economy and our cultural
institutions on their behalf.
Many years ago Amilcar Cabral described cultural practice as an act of
liberation. The manner in which we spend public finances this year hopefully
will contribute to the development of the soul of our nation and promote its
further liberation.
During the 2006/07 financial year, the Department will spend close to R70
million on language programmes and on activities to promote linguistic
diversity in South Africa. This includes the financial resources allocated to
the work of the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), R39.09 million.
These resources are utilised to translate all documentation of all national
government departments into the 11 official languages, plus a number of foreign
languages. Language policy mechanisms such as the Telephone Interpreting
Service for South Africa (TISSA), language research and development centres,
Human Language Technologies, terminology development, literature development
and promotion are all funded from the same source.
On the telephone interpreting service alone, my Department will spend more
than R30 million over two years. It is one of the projects through my
Department that has already created employment for over 60 previously
unemployed people. The Department will continue creating new job opportunities
in the field of interpretation and call centre management as the telephone
interpreting service is rolled out throughout the country
TISSA gives effect to functional multilingualism by providing professional
and efficient telephone interpreting services to all those who need to access
the government. It particularly seeks to enhance oral communication between the
public and government agencies, so that anyone can be served in a language of
their choice, provided it is an official language in South Africa.
TISSA is an innovative strategy for entrenching democracy as it speaks to
the rights of the citizens to use the languages of their choice in accessing
government services and information. It is fair to postulate that language, as
one of the most sensitive matters in South Africa, has been brilliantly tackled
by the introduction of such an innovative communication tool, TISSA.
The South Africa has departed from the previous bilingual dispensation, that
entailed only English and Afrikaans being promoted, advanced and utilised for
government business and communication at all levels. Eleven of the languages
spoken in the country have official status in our Constitution. We therefore
have an obligation to promote and advance their usage. I want to emphasise that
Afrikaans, like all the other official languages, is being actively promoted
and protected by the government, the hysteria of certain academics
notwithstanding!
The experiences of June 1976, whose 30th anniversary we are commemorating this
year, demonstrate that the use of a language or languages to oppress other
human beings cannot be an option for South Africa. The only sensible course for
us is the equitable promotion and use of all the official languages; it is the
parity of esteem for all our languages, where each language is embraced,
nurtured and encouraged to grow and develop. Even though Afrikaans in the past
was used as a tool for the domination and oppression of the African people,
this language remains one of the official languages of South Africa. Nothing
and no one will, change that. The development and advancement of the African
languages will not be at the expense of Afrikaans. The status of Afrikaans as
an official language in the Republic of South Africa is not under threat!
The integration of multilingualism within developmental initiatives
acknowledges the need to prepare all citizens for life in a multilingual
society. Integral to the vision and mission of the Department are the various
cultural and historical heritages of our diverse people. It is the vision and
mission of DAC to develop, preserve and promote South African culture to ensure
social cohesion and nation building. DAC is committed to the effective
mainstreaming of literature and pertinent activities within the broader
government goals of socio-economic development and nation building with a
particular emphasis on social cohesion and national identity. In pursuing these
goals, there will be a concerted effort to collaborate with the provinces and
local authorities. A coherent national strategy will enable us to take this
effort forward and ensure its sustainability.
Effective programmes for literature development, literary awareness,
identification of community liaison personnel and other initiatives that
address the unique language needs of previously marginalised language
communities are equally important for full participation of these African
language mother tongue speakers in all provinces and regions where these
languages are spoken. A community-based approach to the promotion of provincial
and regional literature is the most viable one for the implementation of the
policy. A number of literary awards were established last year to ensure that
deserving writers are recognised, encouraged and rewarded for their
efforts.
During 2005 we spent R490-million on heritage institutions, which accounted
for almost 67% of our budget. This expresses the Departmentâs mandate as the
âcustodian of the nationâs collective memory.â Heritage can best contribute to
Social Cohesion and the building of a sense of South African national Identity
because it is a palpable record of our past. A special Transformation Budget
has been steadily augmented over the last three years to reflect the diversity
of South African society and contribute to the decolonisation of our minds.
As our heritage estate becomes more truly reflective of the national
experience, so too new challenges are thrown up. After we unveiled the Albert
Luthuli monument in KwaDukuza, in KwaZulu-Natal, last year we designated Sheik
Yusufâs Kramat in Macassar, in the Western Cape as a national monument. This
year government adopted the decision to erect two more significant monuments in
Evaton and Bloemfontein respectively. The first will be a statue of Charlotte
Manye Maxeke, in Evaton, where she and her husband established Wilberforce
Institute in 1908; the second will be a statue of Abram Fischer, one of the
most illustrious sons of the Afrikaner people, in his hometown
Bloemfontein.
During the latter part of this year, we shall also unveil a sculpture,
executed by Noriah Mabasa, dedicated to the women of South Africa as part of
the commemoration of the 1956 March on Pretoria. The Womenâs monument, at Union
Buildings, will also be refurbished as part of this yearâs celebrations. The
Wesleyan church hall, in the old Waaihoek location in Bloemfontein, will also
become a heritage site as the venue of the inaugural conference of the African
National Congress.
2006 is probably overloaded as a year for heritage. Apart from the 50th
anniversary of the Womenâs March on Pretoria, it is also the centenary of the
Anti-Poll Tax Rebellion; of Satyagraha â the technique of non-violent
resistance pioneered by Gandhi while he was in South Africa; the 30th
anniversary of the Soweto Studentsâ Uprising; the 60th anniversary of the
African Mineworkersâ Strike; and the tenth anniversary of our Constitution.
The DAC has been tasked with giving leadership in the marking of all these
and I chair an Inter-Ministerial Committee responsible for coordinating the
various departments of government.
A large amount has been allocated to development of new infrastructure and
the revamping existing institutions. In July 2005, working with the Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, we hosted the 29th Session of the World
Heritage Committee in Durban. That event was a coup for Sub-Saharan Africa and
coincided with the inscription of our newest World Heritage Site, the Vrede
Fort Dome in the Free State and the extension of the Cradle of Humankind, to
include Taung in North West arid Mokapane Valley in Limpopo.
Significantly, this has culminated in the establishment and the launch of an
African World Heritage Fund through which African governments committed
themselves to the preservation, protection and promotion of Africaâs heritage.
Hopefully, this will result in fewer African sites on the endangered list, and
more African sites on the World Heritage List. South Africa took the lead in
proposing and piloting the heritage fund through the councils of UNESCO and at
the African Union (AU).
Our own National Heritage Council is rallying civil society support to put
the heritage issue on the public agenda and to raise awareness of our heritage
sites amongst our people. The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA)
continues to identify and promote new heritage sites and is conducting an audit
of movable cultural property.
This will assist us in fighting the illicit trade in African heritage
resources.
R635.22 million has been voted for Heritage in this yearâs budget.
The theme for this year's Heritage Day is âOur Indigenous Musicâ, and we
will be celebrating it in Cape Town, to coincide with South African Music week
and Moshito, the national music conference and expo, during which we take stock
of the music industry, its development and new trends.
Heritage is inseparable from our National Archives, Libraries and Heraldry.
To promote our national symbols, together with the Department of Education, we
launched the âFlag in every School Projectâ at the A.Z. Berman School in
Mitchellâs Plain. We plan to roll out the project across all the provinces over
the next two years.
We are currently building a multi-million Rand, state of the art new home
for the National Archives. We hope to open the northern campus of the National
Library in the centre of Pretoria in early 2008. R1 billion has been set aside
for the development of our libraries over the next three years and a Library
Transformation Charter is being developed. The thrust of all these is to
cultivate a reading culture amongst South Africans. The new library development
pilot project in Mdantsane, Buffalo City will be a trial run for a new vision
of public libraries as more than depositories for books, but as cultural
centres which can also serve communities as points at which to access
government services.
The dearth of literature in the African languages still poses a huge
challenge. This year, a small publishing house, based here in Cape Town, with
encouragement from the Ministry rose to the challenge and has already published
two titles in Xhosa, the African language most widely spoken in this province.
New Africa Books has also taken the plunge, by re-printing W.B. Rubusanaâs
Anthology of Xhosa Epic Poetry, âZemkâInkomo Magwalandiniâ. The DACâs own
efforts to stimulate writing and publishing in the indigenous languages are
slowly bearing fruit. During 2005 we awarded a number of prizes to authors who
had written in Venda, Tsonga, SePedi and Zulu. These literary awards will be
augmented when we mount the Literary Heroes Campaign, which will include the
celebration of the Life and Works of Solomon T. Plaatje.
Our government made a commitment to rescuing the Timbuktu Manuscripts and
ensuring that they are restored and the information they contain preserved for
posterity. That project now is very well advanced and we hosted an academic
conference on the Timbuktu Manuscripts here in Cape Town during August 2005.
The papers written and discussed at the conference will be reproduced as a book
towards the end of January 2007, as both a contribution to knowledge, but also
for the more utilitarian purpose of disseminating information about these
important writings and their restoration. As we consolidate our democracy and
our people become more certain about the future, interesting gems are being
uncovered in the dust of yesteryear. It recently came to light that a number of
Cape Muslim families have in their possession what might be invaluable diaries
and manuscripts, written in various Indonesian dialects as well as in
Afrikaans, employing the Arabic script. In cooperation with the Muslim
community leaders of the Cape, we shall be embarking on a project to have some
of these translated. We trust that our scholars and universities will be
prepared to play a role in rescuing such works from oblivion.
Arts and Culture in peri-urban and in rural areas has transformed the lives
of many and contributed directly to the fight against poverty. By March 2006 we
had created 1612 new jobs. The overwhelming majority of beneficiaries (68%)
were women; 8.2% were disabled. They have thus far performed 196 154 person
days of work, 44 526 of which were devoted to training.
More than 100 learners have been enrolled in learnerships and skills
development programmes directly linked to the arts and culture.
To grow the economy and to narrow the gap between the first and second
economies, through our Investing in Culture Projects we have invested 31.5% (of
available funds) in nodal municipalities to support the Integrated Sustainable
Rural Development and Urban Renewal Programmes. The successes we have scored
are exemplified in:
A R55 000 labour contract awarded by Woolworths to the Tsohang ke Iketsetse
Basotho Project, located in Qwaqwa in the Free State;
Award-winning projects we have supported, like the Hothouse Film Incubator
in Gauteng; the Cape Craft Design Institute and the Grand-Mothers Against
Poverty in the Western Cape have all been celebrated for innovation and their
contributions to national life.
We shall be allocating the following amounts for Job Creation in these
sectors:
Crafts: R10 million
Music: R5 million
Film incubators: R9 million.
Archival paper-making: R9 million
Community arts Centres: R1.5 million
Heritage: R8 million
Arts education: R5 million
Design and fashion: R5 million
Visual arts: R4 million.
Overall, we will be allocating R91 million to investing in culture.
The DAC adds an important dimension of South Africaâs international
relations through the cultural agreements we have reached with a number of
countries. Beyond the shores of our continent, we have concluded a number of
agreements during the course of the past year, yielding remarkable results for
our country and its people. Thanks to a cultural agreement with France, South
Africa was able to host the first-ever exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso
on the African Continent. Picasso and the school of modern art he was
associated with readily accepted their debt to African sculptors, which gave
birth to the movement known as Cubism.
With the assistance of the Standard Bank, the Embassy of France and the
Picasso Museum in Paris, IZIKO National Gallery in Cape Town played host to
this important exhibition. Reports indicate that it was amongst the best
patronised exhibitions to visit our shores, including large numbers of school
pupils.
I had the opportunity to sign yet another agreement with my French
counterpart when I attended the Cannes Film festival last week. We hope to
reciprocate the Picasso exhibition by mounting a major South African cultural
festival, spread across a number of artistic disciplines, in France before
2009.
My recent visit to Europe also saw the signing of a Film co-production
agreement with the United Kingdom, building on a Memorandum of Understanding
signed two years ago in Cape Town. We already have eight of ten
trainee-curators seconded to British galleries and museums. The Slave Lodge,
here in Cape Town, will be entering into a relationship with a sister
institution in Liverpool. The twinning of the two museums will not only be
mutually enriching but could add an important dimension to our understanding of
one of the darker chapters in human history.
In the performing arts, with the assistance of the British Council, our two
countries will engage in exchanges that will see more South African performers
gain access to arts festivals in Britain, which we will reciprocate by inviting
British performers to ours. We can expect to stage a number of performances
during the Commonwealth Games, due to take place in Manchester in 2008.
Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada and Australia are some of the countries we
have reached similar agreements with. The long-standing cultural agreement with
Flanders continues to give support to our Community Arts Projects.
Our cultural links with the rest of the world have increased exponentially
as South Africa assumes her rightful place in world affairs. South Africa will
participate in the Venice International Biennale during September this year.
When Brazil hosts the artists from India and South Africa later this year we
can expect to see a number of South African acts showcased. Two years ago,
Mexico showcased South African performers at her most prestigious Arts
Festival, the Cervantino; this June, the city of Cartegena, in Spain,
Cervantesâs native land, will host South Africa at its annual festival.
We have been invited to fly the âAfricaâs Time Is Nowâ flag during the 2006
Soccer World Cup in Germany. At the invitation of the German authorities we
will be mounting a cultural programme that will include the performing arts and
crafts in Berlin and Cologne, to create a top-of-the-mind awareness of South
Africa as the next host country for the World Cup in 2010.
Madame Speaker,
Given these ambitious plans we shall be allocating R19 million to International
Relations in this yearâs budget.
South Africaâs cultural industries and their potential for wealth generation
and job creation have been under-estimated for far too long. Under the
stewardship of the incumbent Ministry we have begun a comprehensive mapping of
our cultural industries with a view to maximising their contribution to the
national economy. A delegation sent to London to learn from Britain had its
mission interrupted by the bombings on the London Underground. With the
agreement of the British government they will be able to resume it soon.
After the extremely successful Crafts Expo in Mafeking last December, we
will be mounting a major crafts expo in Pretoria in November this year to offer
a high profile showcase to our crafters. The Beautiful Things Exhibition,
designed to showcase crafts in Soweto, will hopefully become a retail brand. We
have already secured an important contract with a major overseas retailer which
can become a platform for South African crafters to become major players on the
international market.
The impact of South African music and musicians on the world stage is an
established fact. Despite this no one could claim that our musicians are
getting a fair deal, at home or abroad. The DAC has tried in a number of ways
to improve the situation of our musicians, where necessary, by giving them the
necessary backing in their dealings with international promoters and companies.
With the DACâs assistance the family of the late Solomon Linda, the composer of
âMbubeâ, won an out of court settlement from Disney Studios after years of
litigation over the use of their fatherâs composition in the blockbuster film,
âThe Lion Kingâ. Securing the intellectual property rights of South African
musicians remains a huge challenge, which has been compounded by the rapid
development of new information and communications technologies as well as the
shameless pirating of music that takes place here in South Africa. A proposed
levy on the sale of blank recording tapes and CDs has been mooted, but I
suspect technology has already has overtaken us.
We have repeatedly told the Moshito conference that South African recording
industry is an untapped gold mine. During Heritage month we plan to fast-track
the entry of South African music onto the international market by commencing a
well targeted campaign to promote our music product internationally. The
establishment of an Independent Record Companies Association, our recently
gained access to Midem in France, as well as the footholds we have gained by
exposure at international festivals should serve us well.
This year will also see the realisation of a project that is very close to
my heart, the unveiling of South Africaâs first jazz orchestra, under the
leadership of Abdullah Ibrahim. This will be the first of the two large
instrumental ensembles I undertook to build during my first budget debate in
2004. The building blocks of the second are being slowly assembled through
initiatives such as âMzantsiâs Tribute to Oliver Tamboâ, which was very
successfully staged by Victor Ntoni at the Gallagher Estates of 28th October
2005; ESPâs âThe Exileâs Re-Initiationâ, staged in Port Elizabeth in December
2005. These highly experimental initiatives have served not only to revive
choral classics by indigenous composers, but have also demonstrated the
versatility of the various musical idioms and styles that were thought to be
incompatible.
Despite the advances we are making the plight of our performers remains a
scandal. I was consequently very happy to lend my support to the merger of two
of the unions operating amongst South African performers last year. The merger
has already brought forth some results in the shape of a project, supported by
two corporations in the financial sector, to create a social security net for
performers. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the founders of the
Creative Workers Union for showing initiative. I once again want to urge South
African performers to emulate other people who work to earn a living, by
organising themselves into unions that can marshal their collective strength to
win improved conditions of work, better contracts and to exert greater control
over the indispensable entity they bring to the market-place â their creative
talent.
Over the past twelve months, South Africaâs relatively young film industry
has again won kudos in the international arena. Most recently, a young South
African who has chosen film as his career, won the studentâs Oscar at the
Hollywood Academy of Motion Films. Four others, from Cape Town had the courage
to enter their short film for the Cannes Festival. Though they did not walk
away with the prize, their film was amongst the top ten in that category.
Coming so soon after the Oscar won by our local feature film, âTsotsiâ, these
are portents of a promising future for our film industry.
During the first decade of democracy South Africa became a favourite
destination for moviemakers from every part of the world attracted by our
beautiful climate and low prices. Foreign filmmakers continue to shoot their
films here and their work contributes billions to our national economy. In
order to make South Africa even more inviting our Department of Trade and
Industry introduced an indirect subsidy for foreign filmmakers by offering them
a handsome tax rebate. While this rebate makes perfect sense from every point
of view, as we begin to establish ourselves as a film-producing country, we
shall need to revisit such measures so as to maximise the benefits accruing to
our South African film industry and to our filmmakers.
The National Film and Video Foundation, through which the DAC supports film
and video production, will see its budget increased to R35.08 million this
year. The DAC is also engaged in exploring new and more creative ways of
funding films so that the NFVF will not be exclusively dependent on government
for its finances. I was happy to attend the inauguration of FilmFund, a private
sector initiative aimed at leveraging funds from our financial institutions for
filmmakers.
I have recently received assurances that the much talked about studio
projects for Cape Town and Durban will take off either this year or during
2007.
A national theatre indaba, planned for 2006, will be a partnership between
the Community Theatre Development Network and the DAC to create a
platform for theatre practitioners to meet at the national level to deliberate
on the key challenges facing theatre in South Africa. Theatre in this country
has blossomed and grown impressively over the past twelve years, but most South
African actors spend months without remunerative employment. Despite the
vibrancy of South Africa drama, imported productions or productions of foreign
inspiration still tend to dominate the South African stage. These, and other
issues related to theatre, need to be dissected in depth by all the
stakeholders so that we can collectively begin to chart a way forward.
We will witness interesting developments in theatre during the course of the
next six months, including the staging of Samuel Becketâs âWaiting
for Godotâ in Pollsmoor Prison, by a cast drawn from the inmates as part of the
Arts in Prison project run by us in collaboration with the Department of
Correctional Services. In that context I must mention the name of Albert
Thomas, one of Cape Townâs oldest theatre practitioners, whose untimely death
last year, robbed this country of a major talent. âWaiting for Godotâ behind
bars was his idea. I once again extend our condolences to his family and
friends.
During 2005 the first consignment of works collected by the Ifa Lethu
Foundation were exhibited at the premises of Dimension Data in Bryanston. They
comprise paintings and other visual works executed by Black South African
artists during the 1970s and â80s that were bought up by diplomats serving in
this country. With the support of my Ministry, the foundation is diligently
collecting these as donations for repatriation as a way of preserving a
significant chapter in this countryâs art history for the people of South
Africa. Some two hundred works have thus far been identified. Once completed,
the collection will toured around the country in a mobile exhibition, then
exhibited at one of our national galleries.
IZIKO National Gallery in Cape Town also mounted the important âRevisionsâ
exhibition during the first part of 2006. These are works from a private
collection, that tell a rather different story to the conventional account of
South Africaâs 20th century art. That collection is being compiled onto a book
that should be available soon.
In addition to the Dumile Feni Retrospective, mounted in Johannesburg and
Cape Town, we can expect an Ernest Mancoba Retrospective here in Cape Town and
possibly one for George Pemba.
I had hoped to be in a position to announce the success of âA visual History
of 20th Century South Africaâ, conceived by Gavin Jantjies, during todayâs
debate. Gavin Jantjies, an extremely talented art historian from Cape Town, was
compelled to seek and find opportunities outside his land of birth during the
apartheid years. Because we could not mobilise the funds required for this
project from private donors, we have had to put it on hold for another six
months. Hopefully, by this time next year a few purses will have opened and put
us in a position to proceed.
The National Arts Council
I was compelled to dissolve the board of the National Arts Council towards
the end of 2004 because that body no longer enjoyed the confidence of the Arts
Community. After some nine months of litigation, the courts ruled in our favour
and I was in the position to call for nominations from the general public.
The law stipulates that the Minister shall receive recommendations for
constituting the Board of the Arts Council from a panel of art fundis. This was
duly done after the conclusion of the nominations process. Unfortunately, the
list of recommendations was extremely gender imbalanced and found unacceptable
by Cabinet. The Minister was consequently constrained to appeal to the MECs of
Arts and Culture from the provinces to tilt the balance the other way by naming
women to represent their provinces on the National Arts Council. That process
unfolded for more slowly than I had anticipated.
I am however, happy to report that we now have a list of recommendations
that is better balanced that our first list. I shall therefore be in a position
to constitute a new board for the National Arts Council with a healthy gender
balance by the beginning of July.
It is important to note that despite the misgivings, fears and scepticism
expressed by many hasty critics, the National Arts Councilâs personnel have
been able to perform their duties well, even in the absence of a board. To be
sure, there are inevitably companies and personalities who are unhappy or
disappointed by the decisions about their funding. But, on the whole, the arts
community does not appear unduly aggrieved by the absence of a board. The NAC
will receive R62.08 million for its work this year.
Madame Speaker,
We are indeed living during An Age of Hope as the people of South Africa begin
to harvest the fruits of freedom and democracy. In the Arts and Culture our
country has repeatedly been crowned with a laurel wreath for its achievements.
We aim to keep it that way by ensuring that we create an environment in which
the South African people, in all their diversity, have the opportunity to
express themselves culturally.
Thank You.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
2 June 2006
