Department of Sports, Arts and Culture 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the virtual meeting, welcoming the Members and the delegation from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Before the Department’s presentation, the Committee considered adopted the minutes from the previous three meetings.

Briefing by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC)

The briefing was done by the Director-General (DG), Mr Vusumuzi Mkhize, and Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ms Sibongile Mondile.

Re-aligning planning, budget and delivery

This was due to the National State of Disaster as a result of COVID-19. So there has been a budget reprioritisation to fund relief measures; reprioritising of interventions to support recovery; and repurposing of the state to improve delivery and performance.

Hence, the Department decided to temporarily deprioritise some programmes and projects that do not directly support relief measures; refocus integrated medium-term planning for resilience and inclusive development; and focus efforts to improve the capacity and capability of the state to deliver efficiently and effectively.

Key factors that informed the development of the 2021-22 DSAC Annual Performance Plan

1. Adaptions to the risks posed by COVID-19.
2. Accelerating economic recovery
3. Transforming society and uniting the country
4. DSAC response to gender-based violence
5. Cross-cutting focus area.
6. Fighting corruption and strengthening the state.

Below are the programmes under DSAC

Programme one: Administration

Purpose: Provide strategic leadership, management and support services to the Department.

The programme has the following sub-programmes:

1. Ministry
2. Management
3. Strategic Management and Planning
4. Corporate Services
5. Office of the Chief Financial Officer
6. Office Accommodation

[See the presentation for output indicators and annual targets.]

Programme two: Recreation Development and Sport Promotion

Purpose: Support the provision of mass participation opportunities, the development of elite athletes, and the regulation and maintenance of facilities.

Sub-programmes under programme 2

1. Winning Nation - supports the development of elite athletes.
2. Active Nation - supports the provision of mass participation opportunities in sport and recreation.
3. Sports Support - develops and supports an integrated support system to enhance the delivery of sport and recreation.
4. Infrastructure Support - regulates and manages the provision of sport and recreation, and arts and culture facilities. This sub-programme also provides technical support during the construction, repair and renovation of buildings belonging to public entities and other institutions in the sport, arts and culture sector.

[See the presentation for output indicators and annual targets.]

Programme three: Arts & Culture Promotion & Development

Purpose: Promote and develop arts, culture, and languages, and implement the national social cohesion strategy

National Language Services - promotes the use and equal status of all official languages. This entails the development of language terminologies and human language technology, translation and editing services in all official languages, and the awarding of bursaries.

Cultural and Creative Industries Development - supports cultural and creative industries by developing strategies, implementing sector development programmes, supporting sector organisations’ programmes, and providing training support to arts and culture practitioners.

International Cooperation - assists in building continental and international relations for the promotion and development of South African sports, arts, culture and heritage by actively participating and influencing decision-making in identified multilateral organisations and bilateral fora.

Social Cohesion and Nation Building - implements the national social cohesion strategy and brings targeted groups in arts, culture, and heritage, including arts and culture in schools, into the mainstream. This subprogramme is also responsible for the coordination of priority six (social cohesion and safer communities) of the government’s 2019-2024 medium-term strategic framework (MTSF).

Mzansi Golden Economy - seeks to create economic and job opportunities in the arts, culture, and heritage sector by supporting programmes designed to develop audiences, stimulate demand, increase market access, and develop skills.

The Department transfers funds to the National Film and Video Foundation in support of the development of skills, and local content and marketing South Africa’s film, audio-visual and digital media industry.

[See the presentation for output indicators and annual targets.]

Programme four: Heritage Promotion & Preservation.

Purpose:  Preserve and promote South African heritage, including archival and heraldic heritage; oversee and transfer funds to libraries.

Heritage Promotion - supports a range of heritage initiatives and projects, such as the transformation of the heritage landscape through the conceptualisation, equipping and operationalisation of legacy projects; the resistance and liberation heritage route and the relocation of statues; and the Bureau of Heraldry, which registers symbols, popularises national symbols through public awareness campaigns, conceptualises the national flag, coordinates the national orders awards ceremony, and develops and reviews heritage policies and legislation for the preservation, conservation and management of South African heritage.

National Archive Services - acquires, preserves, manages and makes accessible records with enduring value.

Public Library Services - transfers funds to provincial departments for conditional allocations to community library services for constructing and upgrading libraries, hiring personnel, and purchasing library materials.

The Department transfers funds to the South African Geographical Names Council, an advisory body that facilitates name changes by consulting with communities to advise the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture.

See the presentation for the budget per programme.

Budget for 2021/22: where funds will be spent:

About 79% (R4.518 billion) will be spent outside DSAC; 21% (R1.176 billion) will be spent within DSAC.

[See the presentation for the 2021 MTEF Earmarked Funds.]

Discussion

Mr T Mhlongo (DA) wanted to know what happened to the decision that was taken by the Portfolio Committee concerning South African flags, in terms of its implementation. He recounted that the resolution was that all Members will adopt a school as part of the awareness. He asked how many flags were distributed last year and where they were distributed.

Concerning the targets of outdoor gyms, he wanted to know the allocation and how much the budget allocated per gym was.

He also asked if there is any success in fighting corruption within the Department. He asked because he was concerned with the way corruption was being handled within the Department.

He wanted to know the budget for CCIFSA (Cultural & Creative Industries Federation of South Africa).

He asked what the Department’s pro-mandate is.

He also wanted to know why artists are not happy with CCIFSA.

Mr B Madlingozi (EFF) expressed concern about the Department’s failure to put people first. He wanted to know why artists are not being taken seriously to the extent that the Public Protector is involved in sorting out work that should have been smoothly dealt with by the National Arts Council.

He asked why the Department is not telling the South African artists the reason they are not being paid.

He also wanted to know the plans they have for the South African artists.

He noted that CCIFSA is registered as a federation, which is an organisation having other organisations under its umbrella. He wanted to know which organisations these are.

He wanted to know the Department’s contribution to the priorities of spatial integration and how it will be done.

On programme three: indigenous languages, he reckoned that the Department needs to identify how the missionaries worked their way into imposing their culture and using Christianity into completely ruining most of the indigenous cultures and languages of South Africa. He wanted to know how the Department is looking at the programme to rectify the distraction of those value systems in South Africa.

The Department should realise that the indigenous people of South Africa will always be people on the outside looking in at the foreign cultural values and wanting to fit in. South Africa’s cultural wealth and values will remain uncovered and will gradually disintegrate into thin air.

Lastly, he wanted to know what the Department is doing about Mr Thembani Hastings Mqhayi, who is filing a lawsuit against the South African government over the intellectual property theft of the South African Flag design.

Ms V Malomane (ANC) wanted to know under programme one, when the Department is going to fill critical vacancy posts. She also wanted to know the vacancy rate that the Department is having.

Concerning supporting municipalities, she wanted to know which of them the Department is going to support, since in the presentation they only said they are going to support fifty. This is so that it will be easy for Members to identity them when they are doing oversight.

She also asked how the Department is dealing with the issue of supporting and funding libraries.

Mr M Seabi (ANC) recounted that during the Committee’s recent oversight to Free State there were complaints from staff members and artists. They were complaining about the recycling of council members who have a record of low performance as well as council members serving in multiple entities. He wanted to know how the Government will ensure good governance in the wake of such issues. That is, what steps will they take to ensure proper cleaning of councils and councillors appointed in the entities, going forward?

He wanted to know whether the Department has legislation that it wants to prioritise.

He noted that in terms of the White Paper there is an intention to reduce the number of entities to a sizeable manageable number. He wanted to know when they envisage completing that.

More so, he asked how the Department does its campaigns to popularise the work they are doing.

There was a resolution that DSAC needs to meet with the Department of Basic Education so that the issue of school sports is resolved. He wanted to know how far they are in that regard.

Concerning flags, he noted that the DG said that there are only 100 schools remaining in the country to be allocated flags. He said he does not agree with the DG because when they last did oversights in schools in February 2021, many schools did not have flags. So he is surprised when he hears that the 100 they are targeting is the last batch.

He wanted to know what the Acting CFO meant by saying that the bulk of the budget is spent outside the Department.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) pointed out that on page seven of the APP (Annual Performance Plan) the Department indicated that the implementation of the revised right paper on arts and culture will be fast-tracked. However, the APP does not give any indication of how this will be done. She wanted to know with what certainty the Department can state that entities will be amalgamated by the end of MTSF.

She noted that the remarks by Minister Blade Nzimande that some languages, such as Afrikaans, are not indigenous to South Africa. She asked how this will be addressed.

In programme four, she wanted to know if any relief funding has been given to any independent heritage institution, like the apartheid museum, because these heritage legacy facilities might be permanently closing their doors at the end of May 2021.

Looking at the National Monument Flag Project, in light of difficulties being faced because of the loss of income and job opportunities, she asked how the Department justifies setting aside an amount of R20 million. She also wanted an indication of how much money will be put aside for the 2022-24 years.

She wanted to know why Love Life is still funded when it was pointed out by the Committee that the outcomes are not measurable.

Mr C Sibisi (NFP) wanted to know how far they are with fast-tracking the difference between all federations versus the issue of school sport. Participation in sports is lacking whereas there is a programme called mass participation. He asked how the Department is going to make sure that it revives the mass participation programme.

Lastly, he wanted to know If the Department is going to have school sports championships in 2022.

Mr D Joseph (DA) wanted to know the relationship between the recreation department and sports promotion versus the heritage promotion and preservation.

On the cost of employment, he wanted to know if there was an increase for employees and what the percentage is.

He wanted to know the difference between the sports federation and the sports trust on slide seven.

He asked if the mandate of Love Life speaks to the mandate of the Department.

He added that the fact that the President signed the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act in 2019; he wanted to know what policy and legislation the Department has to deal with besides COGTA in supporting the Khoi-San cultural practices.

He asked how much the installation of the IT will cost.

He also asked what the litigation cost budget is for the Department because a lot of entities are spending money on unnecessary litigation, as has been seen with Cricket South Africa.

He congratulated the Department on spending 50% on goods and services, which is very high and even 20% higher than other departments.

Lastly, he wanted to know the Department’s response to the University of Stellenbosch’s policy in Afrikaans.

The Chairperson stated that in programme three one of their aims is to develop cultural and creative industries training for the artist. She asked how they will do that.

She said that Members are going to need a list of schools that were given flags up to today. This is because in many schools there are no flags. So having a list will assist them when they do oversights to see if the principals have lost the flags.

She expressed that to her understanding on the distribution of any funds or any budget is that the treasurer is supposed to give each province according to its population. She added that some provinces are not supposed to be receiving more allocation and asked for more clarity on this from the Department.

She said that as a Committee, Members know that allocations are given to provinces and then municipalities. She wanted to know what that means to the Department – to have the budget, comparing it to the transfers that they are doing to provinces and municipalities. Does the Department have monitoring tools? She wanted to know how they are monitoring Love Life, and of the budget allocated for doing that.

She pointed out that the Department have a number of outstanding pieces of legislation that need to be fast-tracked.

Responses

The DG explained that the project of flag installations started in 2007; there was a target of more than 25 000 schools in the country and that target has been raised. He said that they will provide the list as requested.

The 100 flags target is about maintenance or replacing. It is now more of a top-up.

He also explained that because of COVID-19 in 2020, the Department did not manage to replace or top up any flags in schools.

As indicated by Mr Seabi that there are schools that he visited where there were no flags, the DG said that the Members should give them the names of the schools so that the Department can facilitate the installation of those schools.

On the issue of corruption, the DG explained that if, for instance, it is the board that is implicated, the Department institutes an investigation to unearth and deal with the issue of corruption. If the board is in existence, it is allowed to investigate. For example, looking at NFVF (National Film and Video Foundation), there were allegations relating to the hosting of the awards at Sun City. When that was investigated, the money was recovered and was returned to the NFVF, from those who were implicated. The Department did investigations at Market Theatre and the findings were implemented; it does try to act decisively to try to deal with such issues whether internally or externally.

On why the Department is failing to take care of its people, he said that if they look at how much investment the Department has done in various programmes targeting creatives, this assumption might be dispelled. For example, when the Department talks about flagship projects that it has and the festivals that are also at national level, all these only benefit artists and creatives of South Africa. The Department makes huge contributions to those festivals. This does not mean that this is the limited support that the Department will provide to the creatives, but these are multifaceted initiatives that they provide. One could note that it is the creatives that participate in the touring ventures and the cultural seasons.

The Art Bank is the creatives’ work that is exhibited, which is purchased by the Department. They have also acknowledged through the Minister and Deputy Minister the challenges because of COVID-19. The Government then moved further to put in interventions consisting of relief packaging. The government then moved beyond that and introduced what is called the ‘Presidential employment stimulus package’. He reckoned that the efforts that have been done by the Department have to be appreciated, keeping in mind that the demand outstrips the supply. Therefore, the Department is having these problems because South Africa is blessed with thousands of creatives, but it can only do so much. The Department sympathises with creatives and will continue to use government resources to provide support, albeit limited.

He indicated that the Department has a programme that talks to indigenous knowledge systems as government and as a Department that it is driving to make sure that the issues of exploited and devalued cultures come to the fall and that the people of South Africa begin to take pride in their identity, with cultures not being swallowed in foreign practices.

The Department also partnered with the National House of Traditional Leaders and they have signed the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), and they looked at areas such as how to deal with harmful cultural practices and promote the South African culture so that the citizens take pride in who they are as South Africans. The Department hopes that that will eradicate a sense of standing outside looking and consuming alien cultures.

On the Thembani Hastings Mqhayi matter, he maintained that it is not correct to call it theft of intellectual property because it is alleged. It is alleged because according to the in-depth research the Department has done on how the South African flag came about; it is clear to the Department that this allegation is incorrect. The Department has provided a response to them indicating why the claim to the intellectual property is incorrect. However, they have started the legal process and they will deal with the matter should it come to them in that form.

On filling vacancies, he confirmed that the issue of the Acting DDG of Corporate Services, for programme one, will be a thing of the past by the time the Department comes back to this Portfolio Committee because Cabinet has approved the appointment of the recommended candidate. Should the appointment process go according to plan, the candidate will assume duty by 16 May 2021. So, the post is filled and they are just finishing some administrative processes.

Concerning the Acting CFO, there was a delay in advertising the post because the Department was engaging with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) that this position must be changed from being a Chief Director level to a DDG level. However, DPSA have responded that this cannot be done. The Department must now advertise the post at the level of Chief Director even though it believes that the post should be a higher level due to its responsibilities. They believe that this will be dealt with when they deal with the process of reviewing the organisational structure holistically, later this year.

On the issue of recycling councils, he clarified that it is an open process; they advertise, people then apply and go through the shortlisting processes. People are then screened according to their skills. However, he said maybe they should do more before people are appointed by looking at their previous history and how they left other institutions so that when recommendations are provided by the panellist to the Minister, they can provide a full history of the candidate.

He added that all councils, once appointed, take a week of training on corporate governance and issues of conflict of interest.

Concerning the amalgamation of entities, he indicated that they have just recently had an engagement where they presented the plans to the Minister and Deputy Minister, where they have indicated they must give them comprehensive timelines and a programme of action that will assist them to be able to monitor. So once the plan is completed, they will be to share with the Committee as to when amalgamations will happen.

About the legislation prioritisation, he said that the Department has a legislative programme. This includes the National Sport and Recreation Bill, which was currently being revised; a policy in terms of women in sport; a programme looking at the various legislations impacted upon by the revised white paper in the area of Arts, Culture and Heritage that they have already identified. He said that the Department will provide the list to the Committee in writing, on the legislation that they are prioritising.

He confirmed that the DSAC met with the Department of Basic Education (DBE). The Minister of Sports and Recreation, Arts and Culture, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, and Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, met. They established a team, and that team established a technical team that looks at the MOU between DSAC and the DBE. That team has concluded its work and recommendations around how they can deal with matters that were raised, including the matter of federations.

Concerning the issue of how the R20 million budget will be justified when artists are suffering, he explained that there are interventions of addressing the plight of the sector but that does not mean that they must stop doing the work of the Department. They need to continue functioning and that is why the budget prioritisation was done, including refocusing some of the resources towards relief interventions to support the artist.

On the question as to whether there is room for another additional programme, he said that as the review the organisational structure to respond to the new mandate, this is one of the areas of focus because at this stage there is a lot of overloading of work, such as that of programme one.

He expressed that they understand that they should not be spending money on unnecessary litigation, but unfortunately, human beings are quarrelsome beings, and litigation sometimes seems to become the order of the day. However, they will give the Committee a breakdown of what they have spent so far.

He added that libraries must be centres of community life and not just be for books. There is more to libraries than what has been done and that is why they want to upgrade them by giving them ICT equipment and Wi-Fi.

Concerning the University of Stellenbosch language policy, he indicated that the Department has not made a statement regarding that. The university was engaging on this matter with its stakeholders. Theirs as a Department is to continue at a National Language Policy Act to ensure that there is respect for all languages, as indicated in the Constitution.

Ms Sumayya Khan, DDG: Recreation Development and Sport Promotion (Programme Two), DASC, on when the school championships will happen, indicated that it is in the Department’s APP and operational plans, and they will run the championships in four phases, i.e., the winter games, the summer championships, the autumn games and also the indigenous games festivals. They took this out of their plans in 2020 because of COVID-19. Concerning the cross country, she indicated that in their old school sports programme they focus on the track and the field events. They did not focus on cross-country but the DBE funds the cross-country. That is the only sports programme that they fund, and all other National School sports events are funded by DSAC.

Concerning the mass participation programme, DDG Khan explained that it is part of a sub-programme within the branch called Active Nation. A lot of these mass participation programmes continue in the provinces through the conditional grant. Where the provinces have their funding, they also deliver the mass participation programme. In the programme, there are community sports activities, active creation, etc. There is another part of the ‘I choose to be a active’ campaign, where there is the big walk on national recreation day. The programmes are held on an ongoing basis in the communities, and they promote healthy lifestyles. The Department also has Ministerial outreach programmes where it goes into communities based on the community’s needs, etc.

Concerning the outdoor gyms, she said that the target is ten per year, and this year the budget is about R500 000 per outdoor community gym, where they go into the community and they sign with the municipality that provided them with space and then they build the facility. There are 16 pieces of equipment that are placed inside the gyms.

About Love Life, she suggested that the committee must, at some point, ask them to come and present before the Portfolio Committee. However, more than 80% of their funding comes from the government. So, their funding does not only come from DSAC, but it also comes from the Department of Health - more so their programmes, i.e. healthy lifestyles, sport, active lifestyles and youth development. They also have a programme of job creation through the ground breakers’ programme and they deliver their programme together with the National Youth Service.

In terms of sport, they indicated that they have a presence in youth centres. They have 18 youth centres and have about 182 hubs across the country. Here they employ about 200 peer educators to implement the programmes for sport, and these educators are paid a stipend. So, it is part of the job creation and employment of youth in communities.

On allocations, she indicated that there is a formula they use in mass participation and sports development grants on how the money is allocated to provinces. They have an allocation where each province is allocated a baseline of R20 million and thereafter the equitable share proportions apply to determine the remaining amount.

Concerning monitoring provinces, they have five indicators that they have in their APP for a sport where they have dependencies on the provinces because the conditional grant funds those indicators and the targets in those indicators. So, what they do is that the provinces do have business plans that they have to submit to them, and they analyse them. Monthly, they sent them reports that they will have to verify, and they then sent teams to the provinces at given times to go and monitor whether indeed those activities they have stated in their business plans are taking place. In 2020, they were not able to monitor due to COVID-19. They also have a penalty schedule where if they do not get reports on time, or when it does meet the required standard then a penalty is imposed in terms of the allocations to the provinces. However, when they comply, they then release the funding.

The other monitoring that they do in terms of provinces is through their internal audit unit. They do provincial visits to ensure that there is compliance with the commission grant framework, there is compliance with the allocation of funds; and how the funds have been used.

Concerning sports federations and sports trusts, she noted that they will submit a written response.

Ms Cynthia Khumalo, DDG, DCAS, on CCIFSA, indicated that the budget that has been set aside by the Department is R5 million. This is specifically towards supporting the programmes that CCIFSA would then derive coming out of the policy conference once they have got their policies in place that inform their functioning.

Part of the plan discussed with CCFISA is that they would go through a strategic session that will ensure that there are those concise programmes that will then inform what is contained in their formation document, which is the role that they need to play as an independent industry body – to lead activism in the cultural and creative policy development and ensure coherent implementation of development programmes within the sector.

As to why the artists are not being paid, she said that she can confirm that as of Monday 3 May 2021, out of the total R300 million that had been allocated to NAC for PEESP; R201 million had been paid. The beneficiaries in total is 1 260, comprising of 546 individual applications and 714 applications from organisations.

Concerning the issue of Afrikaans as an indigenous language, she confirmed that indeed it is an indigenous language. Although it meets the definition of indigenous, it is not a marginalised language, unlike the other African indigenous languages.

On the Department’s mandate, the programmes that they do to support the industry in as far as enabling market, they also partner with specific bodies, particularly the emerging designers working with reputable bodies in this sub-sector or domain. There are other programmes around the area of the capacity building like the incubator programmes, which are specifically targeting the area of skills base, the area of sustainability and supporting growth. Some programmes support the visual artists that are being driven through an agreement that they signed with the Arts Bank, which is the National Museum. The other key project is the cultural and creative industry master plan because this is the plan that is informed by proper research that has been done and consultations across the sector. Therefore, the interventions that are structured in terms of short, medium and long term contained within the CCI masterplan are very much key in terms of ensuring focus in the intervention that they do as a Department in as far as the creative industry is concerned. The other party is the acceleration of the implementation of the policy proposals in the White Paper. They have also done the submission where they have drawn up a framework to enable policies that address specific cultural domains e.g., in the area of theatre and the area of dance.

Mr Irwin Langeveld, Chief Director: Heritage Preservation and Promotion, DASC, stated that on the issue of indigenous cultures being neglected, the Department has finalised the policy of South Africa’s living heritage approved in 2016 and the policy aims to identify, document and preserve South Africa’s indigenous knowledge that has been neglected and relegated for centuries under colonialism and apartheid.

The Department has embarked on a baseline study to determine all the sites around the country that relates to the heritage of the five major groups among, which are the Khoisan. The recommendations of this study were then approved by Cabinet on the 03 June 2020. They have since established a steering committee to implement those recommendations. The key recommendations are to establish a Khoi and San heritage root around the country.

More so, the Department is developing a centre of remembrance for Sara Baartman. Part of that centre will be two museums, i.e., the one dedicated to Sara Baartman and the other museum dedicated to the history and heritage of the five major groups.

The centre will also be used to teach languages that are at risk in addition to teaching young people about the history and heritage of the five groups.

Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Ms Nocawe Mafu, said that she appreciates that the Members of the Portfolio Committee are appreciating that the documents arrived early as they had more time to prepare.

She also noted that the questions that the Committee asked were constructive and their nature is that they help the Committee to have a better understanding of the work they do so that they can do their oversight.

On the issue of the legislation, she said that there is not much time this year as it also the year for local government elections. She acknowledged that the Department should move fast with the legislation so that Committee can have a legislature with them as quickly as possible.

She also noted to the Department that on the issue of flags, they should provide the Committee with the report of the flags distributed out of the 25 000.

The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) for the infrastructure of sport in the municipality is not being utilised in the way it is supposed to be utilised by the municipalities. Secondly, at the metro levels, the urban settlement development grant also has a portion that is supposed to be used for sports infrastructures at metros; that as well is not used properly. She added that this is the debate that they should interface with as a Portfolio Committee, to say how they can correct that.

She expressed her support for Mr Seabi that the Department should do campaigns in which they advertise the work that they do. This is because very few people know the work that is done by the Department. Some of the protest action that happen, which the Department is not doing enough, is sometimes because of lack of information.

Lastly, she said that when she listens to the debate of the artists and what they are doing as the Department, she said that maybe their budget towards the artists is more consumer-related than capacity-building-related. Therefore, they should probably go back and sit and look at how the budget must be more capacity building so that any artists they interact with can improve so that they can do things independently instead of depending on the Department.

Follow-up questions

Mr Joseph wanted to know the criteria that private museums have to comply with to access relief funds because some of them are struggling.

Mr Madlingozi asked if CCIFSA was created with the plan of having other organisations under it, as it is a federation or is it just a federation with no organisations under it.

He wanted to know if other organisations that will be formed will be listened to as much as CCIFSA is listened to. The Department listens to CCIFSA because it is closest to the government.

He reiterated that the Committee is asking about the money that was earmarked for the pandemic and not the flagships.

The Chairperson proposed for DGs of intergovernmental relations to meet so that when they called before Parliament, they would have had a chance to meet.

Responses

The DG noted that they will provide the criteria in writing as asked by Mr Joseph.

The DG said that since Mr Madlingozi has been in the industry for a long time, he is surely aware of why CCIFSA was created and is correct in saying that a federation has other organisations. He noted that this is what they would want to see at the national level so that is a true federation. There are already organisations that are affiliates of that, but they look first at how they can deal with whether is it just councils or is just organisations. This sector has various sector organisations that have done tremendous jobs. So, his understanding is that it should a federal structure similar to what they have in COSATU but in the area of creatives.

On the issue of relief funds not reaching all the artists, he indicated that they have boards on which they publish the list of those who benefited – whether its organisations or individuals. As the President had indicated, every means must be made to support all sectors of the society and budget released by the government to try and assist. The Department also had the same but it is limited because of the budget so they can only do so much. At the moment they have what they call a third wave where they are trying to reach out and support the creatives. The third wave is also making relief accessible to the creatives and athletes.

The Committee also considered and adopted its programme for the term.

The meeting was adjourned.