Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, hon members, I greet you.
The UDM supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.] Arts and Culture is at the core of nation-building. Nation-building is a difficult task that helps us to collectively determine the kind of South Africa we seek to become. The dividends of the investments we make in arts and culture today and tomorrow usually come in the form of increased social cohesion.
Ka Sepedi sa ge?o re re tau t?a hloka seboka di ?itwa ke nare e hlot?a. Ke re a hlot?a! [In my home language, Sepedi, it is said that unity is strength. In this case we are divided!]
If we don't work together, we will not be able to achieve what we want to achieve. Social cohesion will remain a dream. We must work together to achieve this.
We are astutely aware of the fact that the Arts and Culture Budget Vote gets only a small share of the overall national Budget because we have so many other pressing socioeconomic challenges. We therefore do not expect the department to perform miracles. All that our people expect to get is value for money.
For many years the UDM has complained, with no success, not only about the poor state of public libraries in many peri-urban areas but also about the severe shortage of public libraries in far-flung, deep rural areas. Not only are public libraries a scarce commodity in rural areas but the few that we do have are severely underresourced and lack indigenous language material.
If you go into the library you'll not even find a newspaper - an ordinary, simple newspaper. You will not find a book in an indigenous language. I mean, there isn't even a newspaper that you can read when you are bored with other things. We don't have newspapers in our libraries! This is a serious matter. We have to consider bringing materials in indigenous languages to our people. It is worse in the rural areas. There are no books or newspapers. This situation is serious.
A large amount of qualitative evidence points to the impending mass extinction of languages ... [Time expired.]
Thank you very much for the short time that you have given me. [Applause.] [Laughter.]