Hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Mninwa Mahlangu, hon Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Joe Phaahla, the hon Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation, Ms Wendy Makgate, and members of the committee, hon delegates to the National Council of Provinces, representatives of the SA Local Government Association, MECs for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Director-General and senior managers of the Department of Arts and Culture, our agencies and institutions, ladies and gentlemen, it gives us great pleasure to present the Department of Arts and Culture's 2011-12 Budget Vote to the National Council of Provinces. In about six months from now, the oldest liberation movement in Africa, the African National Congress, will celebrate its 100th anniversary. This will be a celebration by all the people of South Africa, Africa and the world, because the ANC was formed to unite South Africans in particular, but also Africa and the diaspora. This celebration will be an acknowledgement of the many years of selfless struggle toward freedom, dignity and equality for all. The 100th anniversary of the ANC is an important part of our liberation heritage which we must preserve for current and future generations.
As we preserve this part of our heritage, we must also be reminded of that seminal document of our people, the Freedom Charter, which to this day continues to guide the work of the ANC inside and outside government. We must continue to strive towards building the kind of society envisaged by those visionaries who adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. Indeed by 2055, the centenary of the Freedom Charter, we must have made significant strides towards achieving the objectives of the Charter.
Part of what needs to be done to build the kind of society envisaged by those visionaries in 1955 is to continue strengthening efforts aimed at nation-building and promoting social cohesion. An integral part of these efforts is to advance the economic empowerment of our people. In particular, we will continue to strengthen the contribution of the arts, culture and heritage sector to the national goal of creating more decent jobs and building sustainable livelihoods, especially for practitioners in this sector.
It is for this reason that our National Consultative Summit on the contribution of the arts, culture and heritage sector to the economy, held in April of this year, took a number of far-reaching resolutions. These resolutions seek to ensure that this sector contributes to the economic advancement of all South Africans.
In this regard, I wish to refer to the declaration of that historic summit, and I quote:
Our culture and heritage is key to nation-building and social cohesion, and these are the ingredients for creating a climate of social stability and economic growth.
This declaration was made in recognition of the reality that societies with a greater degree of social cohesion are often more economically prosperous.
The more than 1 000 delegates at the summit resolved that we should create an art bank, launch a public art programme, and establish cultural precincts in all provinces, starting in Mangaung, the birthplace of the ANC in 1912.
A tour company will be established to support exhibitions and performances to tour locally and internationally.
The summit also resolved to continue with the implementation of the National Liberation Heritage Route project, which will tell the stories of our liberation struggle, from across the length and breadth of our country and beyond.
The summit committed itself to initiating a process that will lead to the establishment of a National Skills Academy for the arts. We reiterate that the National Skills Academy for the arts will not replace existing training initiatives in provinces, but will strengthen them and co-ordinate their work.
We are delighted to announce that the implementation of some of the resolutions of the summit is well under way. This includes the establishment of multistakeholder task teams and ongoing discussions with provinces and municipalities to ensure joint implementation of these resolutions.
As agreed at the summit, and in order to ensure the buy-in and co-operation of all provincial stakeholders in the implementation of summit resolutions, we urge all MECs for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation to hold provincial report-back sessions on the outcomes of the summit.
The summit resolved that we should work with the Department of Basic Education to develop interventions in the education system to bring arts education back into our schools. We are in discussion with Minister Motshekga in this regard. These interventions will include the provision of resources and support for both learners and educators in the arts. They will also identify and nurture artistic talent at an early age and promote the arts as a career of choice, as well as develop an appreciation of the arts by learners, thereby contributing towards audience development. We look forward to working with all provinces as we implement this important resolution that will contribute to the sustainability of our sector.
The path we have crafted for the arts, culture and heritage sector requires that we re-evaluate the manner in which we fund this sector. In this regard we will be readjusting our budget to fund the outcomes of the summit. We will do this because the priorities we identified at the summit speak directly to job creation, which is a primary focus of the work of government in the next five years.
In the coming months we will submit detailed plans to receive funding from the R9 billion jobs fund announced by the President earlier this year. We will also take advantage of the support measures for our sector, particularly in regard to crafts, music, jewellery production, clothing, leather, footwear and textiles, made available in terms of the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2, Ipap 2. In addition, we are working with the National Lotteries Board to streamline funding for our sector from the National Lottery.
We are mentioning all of this to encourage provinces and municipalities to budget adequately for the arts, culture and heritage sector. We must work together to prevent arts, culture and heritage infrastructure from either becoming white elephants or becoming dilapidated due to lack of maintenance.
Just over a week ago we convened a national workshop on geographical names. This workshop marked an important milestone in the ongoing process of our developing, as a nation, a common identity, as defined by the places we live in and how we name them. We are encouraged that the workshop reiterated that the process of name standardisation does not seek to obliterate the history of a certain section of our society. Rather, this process is aimed at building a society that all South Africans can call home, a society at peace with itself. The Freedom Charter says that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white". Going forward, we will continue to work with all Provincial Geographical Names Councils to ensure that the process of name standardisation is inclusive and reflective of the will of the people as a whole.
We now have a new Director-General in the department, Mr Sibusiso Xaba. The appointment of the Director-General is part of our ongoing work to strengthen the capacity of the department and its agencies, to deliver on our mandate.
We have also inaugurated the boards of the National Arts Council of South Africa, the National Film and Video Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Museum and the South African National Geographical Names Council. We are moving with speed to inaugurate all the outstanding boards of our institutions. Our intention is to appoint all outstanding boards by the end of this financial year. We thank all provinces for contributing to the nomination and appointment process of board members. However, we caution that provincial nominations to boards must be guided by the need to ensure equity in all our structures, including women's participation.
This year the Department of Arts and Culture will work with the Office of the Chief Whip, the Limpopo provincial government, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation to host the commemorations of Nelson Mandela Week, with the main event being Mandela Day on 18 July. This year, in celebration of Mandela Week and Day, we once again call upon South Africans to dedicate 67 minutes of their time to make a change in somebody's life and in their communities.
The Mandela Week and Day celebrations will also contribute to our goal of nation-building and the strengthening of a common national identity and patriotism. As part of these celebrations the Department of Arts and Culture will donate books to schools and libraries, beautify public spaces and promote the flying of the national flag at all public schools and public institutions. Indeed we also encourage private households to fly the flag. We trust that all provinces will join in these celebrations as we pay tribute to and defend the proud legacy of our icon, uBab' uNelson Mandela.
As I conclude, I take this opportunity to thank members of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation for their oversight work with regard to the Department of Arts and Culture. I also wish to thank MECs from the various provinces and provincial Departments of Arts and Culture for working with us, as we together build this nation and promote social cohesion.
I would also like to thank all our boards and councils, and the CEOs and staff of our agencies and institutions for their hard work. Last but not least, I wish to thank the Deputy Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, the Director- General, Mr Sibusiso Xaba, and all the managers and staff of the Department of Arts and Culture for their hard work and for ensuring that we remain focused on the tasks at hand. I thank you very much.
I now present our budget to the NCOP. Siyabonga! [Thank you.] [Applause.]