House Chair, the question is about the steps the department is taking to empower artists; whether the department has plans to fight piracy; and about libraries and museums.
House Chair, let me say that yes, we do have various programmes, but we realised that the sector is very fragmented. We firstly looked at how we could deal with that problem and then we initiated various structures to bring artists together. Now there is an organisation called Mushito that is dealing with the music industry. There's an association of independent record companies of South Africa, and of course, there is the Creative Workers Union of South Africa.
All these structures helped us to improve the way in which artists organise themselves. We then came up with the strategy called Mzansi Golden Economy, where we look at scaling up a lot of events that are already taking place throughout the country - at least two per province - so that the artists will have opportunities to perform.
Working with provincial governments, we are also creating cultural precincts in all major cities in the country. These strategies are being implemented now and a lot of artists are benefiting from the programme. Recently, we sent out a call for artists to send proposals so that we can begin to fund various initiatives.
With regard to the issue of piracy, the Department of Trade and Industry is the lead department, therefore we are working with them on the antipiracy campaigns since we are a key player in that sector. There are various programmes that are unfolding, including awareness campaigns. We are also working with the Ministry of Police on that one.
As for libraries, we are continuing to build libraries. Obviously the rural areas are a problem. We haven't built any new libraries in rural areas since March 2012.
The problem here is that we don't physically build libraries, but we fund provinces and therefore they are the entities that are making libraries a priority. I had meetings with the MECs of provinces to ask them to prioritise rural areas.
The approach we are taking, House Chair, as the Minster of Basic Education has indicated, is to cluster areas to ensure that community libraries also benefit schools. Therefore, location is also influenced by that.
To the last part of the question as to whether the department is building museums, the reply is yes, we are building museums in various provinces. There is the Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha and Qunu. There's also the Luthuli Museum based in Groutville in KwaZulu-Natal. We are currently building a museum in Nkantolo in the Eastern Cape at the homestead of O R Tambo.
We are also building a museum in Hankey in the Eastern Cape, the Sarah Baartman Centre of Remembrance. We are also upgrading the Ncome Museum facility in KwaZulu-Natal. More programmes will be implemented next year as we roll out the Liberation Heritage Route.