Chairperson, hon Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Paul Mashatile, other hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers here present, MECs from provinces and heads of departments, hon chairperson of the portfolio committee, Mme Sunduza, and other members of the portfolio committee, hon members of the House, managers of our department and its entities, board members, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
This year we celebrated the 17th anniversary of our freedom under the theme, "Working together to unite the nation, promote democracy and protect freedom". This was in recognition of the journey that we have travelled since the watershed 27 April 1994 elections, which ushered in the current democratic order.
Who can forget the excitement throughout the country, and especially at the Union Buildings, when our founding father and icon, former President Nelson Mandela, took the oath of office on the podium on 10 May 1994.
In his speech to the nation on that historic occasion, former President Mandela declared, amongst other things:
We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
Focusing on the challenges ahead, former President Mandela went on to say:
We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.
In concluding his inaugural speech, former President Mandela declared:
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.
Let freedom reign.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement.
As we celebrated our 17th year of freedom, we were, therefore, reminded of the clarion call of our founding father who committed us to the building of a "society in which all South Africans will be able to walk tall without fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity".
This government, whose foundation was laid by former President Mandela, therefore remains committed to the creation of a united, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous nation.
It is not by accident that our Constitution also enjoins us to build a society based on the values of human dignity, equality and advancement of human rights and freedom.
The task of realising all these values within the collective of government is allocated to this department - the Department of Arts and Culture - as the lead department in this respect. It is up to this department to make sure that the necessary infrastructure, resources and organisational framework are put in place to harness the energies of all South Africans in the creation of the rainbow nation, as envisaged by our founding father.
Of course, with the history of decades and centuries of entrenched racism under successive colonial and apartheid regimes, the task of building a united, cohesive and inclusive society was never going to be an easy one.
The history of human society has also shown that whenever human beings face various social, economic and political challenges it is always easy to seek refuge in racism, tribalism, regionalism and other such backward tendencies, instead of confronting the challenges ahead. South Africa is, no exception in this regard, as we have seen in the recent past, about two years ago, with the so-called xenophobia violence. Such tendencies do rear their heads from time to time.
Instead of allowing our diversity of race, culture, language and heritage to be a source of division, we must make these the building blocks of our unity in diversity. The task of building a united South African nation can also not be divorced from that of building an economically competitive and prosperous nation. A nation that does not know its history will have difficulty in mapping a way forward. A nation that is not proud of its heritage, culture, language and the best of its traditions will find it hard to compete with its peers.
Across the globe nations that are leaders in economy, technology, sports, arts, music, etc, tend to be those that are anchored very strongly in their heritage and cultural foundation. If you look at China, Japan, Germany, France and others all over the world, you will see that the one other thing that they have in common is their pride in their history, culture and heritage.
Since the Social Cohesion Colloquium which was held in 2009, we have intensified our social cohesion campaign. The campaign is based, amongst other things, on the following pillars: diversity, inclusivity, ensuring that we have access to basic services, and the promotion of values that define the kind of society that we seek to build.
As we implement this campaign we will be all over the country - in the streets, at taxi ranks, on trains and in shopping centres - talking to our communities and hosting, in these communities, conversations about what makes us as South Africans unique. This campaign will culminate in the national summit during the course of July, which will coincide with Mandela Week.
One of the instruments of fostering national pride and patriotism is the popularisation of our national symbols. Who can deny that one of the success stories of our hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup was the promotion of our national flag?
Today, as we mark 100 days before the start of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand, we commit ourselves, again together with the Department of Sport and Recreation, to making sure that we encourage South Africans again to fly the flag and sing the national anthem with pride.
Another important, though often contentious, project for redressing the imbalances of the past and contributing to nation-building is that of geographic name changes. There is absolutely no argument about the fact that, at the time of our freedom, colonialism and apartheid had obliterated most of the indigenous names of important places and replaced them with the preferred names of those who had conquered. These were often the names of their heroes, such as army generals and governors.
The process of geographic name change which ensued after the birth of democracy brought a lot of unhappiness to others who felt that some of the important parts of their history were being obliterated.
As a result of this recognition, our department embarked on a process of wide-scale consultations to find a win-win approach. After consultations involving a wide range of stakeholders, a report was compiled and is ready for presentation at the national workshop.
The workshop will be held during the course of this month, June 2011, and we hope that out of this we will emerge with an approach that accommodates the desire for change, while catering for the concerns of those who fear that their history is being lost.
We accept that we can't change the fact that Hendrick Verwoerd was a player in the history of our country, even though we don't agree with his ideology. Therefore we have been ordered by the Deputy President to go and find his statue, and to find out who stole the statue from Midvaal. So, as part of this reconciliation we must find that statue. I'm not apportioning any blame. [Laughter.]
Our department remains committed to the important task of promoting a culture of reading and writing. Community libraries are crucial in carrying out this task. I am pleased to announce that we are consolidating the implementation of the Community Libraries Recapitalisation Programme. The first three years of this project have been successfully completed. We have allocated an additional R1,6 billion over the next three years to expand access to libraries and information services, especially in previously disadvantaged communities.
Since the inception of the programme three years ago, over 600 professional and support staff members have been appointed in community libraries across the country. In addition, 170 libraries have been upgraded and 20 new libraries have been built. In an effort to bridge the digital divide, public Internet access facilities are also being established at these libraries.
Part of who we are as South Africans is expressed through our languages and our shared embrace of the multilingual nation. Freedom of expression and creativity can only take full effect if we recognise the importance of mother-tongue languages and the right of our people to speak, read and write in the languages of their choice.
To give effect to the constitutional obligation concerning multilingualism, we will this year submit the South African Languages Bill. This Bill seeks to promote the inclusive use of all official languages of South Africa, and to ensure unhindered, equal access to government services and programmes, and education, knowledge and information. Through this Bill we are pursuing the entrenchment of language equity and language rights, so that both national unity and democracy are promoted.
In pursuit of multilingualism, together with the National Library of SA, we have also engaged in a vigorous effort to republish our indigenous language literary classics. In December last year we launched 20 additional titles as part of this initiative.
We are continuing with the Indigenous Language Publishing Programme, a partnership with the SA Book Development Council, to produce new material in nine previously marginalised indigenous languages. The programme offers publishing opportunities to emerging writers and support to independent small publishers. So far the programme has produced titles such as A hi fambe munghana wa mina in Xitsonga Tikhatsi Tekugcina, in Siswati, Ziyodlula Izinsizwa in Zulu, Boiteko Ba Ka in Sesotho.
In further promoting multilingualism, we have partnered with the CSIR Meraka Institute on the Lwazi Project, which aims to develop a multilingual telephone-based information system aimed at improving communication, amongst others, between government and communities; and at facilitating access to reliable information, regardless of the location of the citizen, whether in urban or remote rural areas the level of literacy, and the language of choice. More than R14 million has been allocated to this project, which will target mainly underdeveloped parts of our country. This project will be available in all the official languages to show inclusiveness of all South African citizens and will promote language preservation.
As the Presidential Hotline has shown, South African citizens place great value on being able to communicate with government by using the telephone. The Lwazi Project will ensure that communication becomes significantly more available, affordable and efficient for government and community communication. This project will be implemented hand in hand with the Department of Basic Education.
The South African book sector has become globally competitive and our writers continue to command respect across world. Today we have two writers who recently won international literary prizes. I would like to congratulate Ms Duduzile Cynthia Jele, winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, Africa Region, with her debut novel entitled Happiness is a Four Letter Word. [Applause.] I also extend our hearty congratulations to Ms Lauren Beukes who recently came back from the UK with the Arthur C Clarke Award for her book titled Zoo City, beating some of the well-known, international bestselling authors. [Applause.]
The Department of Arts and Culture is committed to the preservation, development and promotion of South African literature. Our strategic objective in this regard is to promote a culture of reading and writing in all South African languages.
Our department, in collaboration with the SA Book Development Council, established the very first National Book Week, with resounding success, during the course of September 2010, and this will be repeated during the course of 2011. This platform is one of those through which government supports the book sector and civil society. This year the National Book Week will take place from 5 to 11 September.
The hon Minister has already touched on the national film and video sector, and therefore I will not go into that.
As custodians of the vision of Nelson Mandela, Chief Albert Luthuli, Oliver Reginald Tambo, Yusuf Dadoo, Helen Joseph and many other esteemed leaders of our glorious movement, we shall continue to champion the cause of the creation of a truly united, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist, prosperous South Africa. This is an ideal former President Mandela was prepared to live for, and if need be, die for. We dare not fail him. Thank you. [Applause.]