Chairperson, hon members, MECs present here, ladies and gentleman, I stand before this House to present the Budget Vote for the Department of Arts and Culture for the financial year 2010-11, a year which the ANC has declared as the year of working together to speed up effective service delivery to the people.
We present our Budget Vote a day after we have marked the 47th anniversary of Africa Day, which this year we will celebrate under the theme, "Promoting and Maintaining Peace in Africa through Sport".
As we celebrate Africa Day, we once more commit ourselves to the goal of promoting unity and progress across the continent. We must also remember our African brothers and sisters in the diaspora, especially the people of Haiti following the earthquake that destroyed many of their lives and livelihoods. As part of our work in supporting the people of Haiti as they rebuild their country, we launched the African Artists for Haiti initiative last month.
This year's theme for Africa Day takes on even more significance as our country is preparing to welcome the peoples of the world to the 2010 Fifa World Cup. During that historic moment when the first whistle is blown to signal the start of the games, we will proudly proclaim that Africa's time has come: Afrika ke nako [Africa, now is the time]! The Department of Arts and Culture continues to make significant advances in pursuit of its vision to develop and preserve South African culture to ensure social cohesion and nation-building. Part of our work involves highlighting the important role that the arts, culture and heritage sector can play in the growth and development of our economy. This is particularly significant in the light of the need for us to continue strengthening our offensive on poverty and unemployment.
In countries such as the United Kingdom and India, the arts, culture and heritage sector represents one of the fastest-growing economic sectors contributing to job creation and poverty alleviation. In our country too, there is evidence that this sector is a significant contributor to the gross domestic product. Most importantly, this sector provides a sustainable livelihood to women, youth and rural communities.
This reality was reaffirmed at a presidential imbizo last year where President Jacob Zuma, various Ministers and MECs of arts and culture met with the creative industry practitioners. This imbizo marked renewed efforts by our government to reposition the creative industries. This will be done with a view to acknowledging and enhancing the sector's contribution to the broader objective of government to grow the economy and create jobs.
It is for this reason that the Department of Arts and Culture is currently siezed with the important task of mapping cultural industries and researching their economic impact. It is critical, for example, to know to what extent events such as the Mangaung African Cultural Festival, the North West Cultural Calabash held annually in Taung, the Cape Town Carnival, the National Arts Festival and many other festivals contribute to the economies of most of the host cities.
It is also important that we pay attention to the urgent need to build the appropriate skills base required to sustain and further develop this sector. In this regard, efforts are under way to establish a national skills academy for the arts. We are currently consulting with all relevant stakeholders, including our international partners, to ensure the success of this initiative.
The national skills academy will become a centre of excellence whose purpose will be to fine-tune the abundant talent that many of our artists have, with a view to ensuring that they become the best in the world.
Arts training initiatives and programmes conducted by different provinces will serve as feeders to the national skills academy. It is for this reason that we will continue to work closely with provinces to ensure the success of this initiative.
The Department of Arts and Culture, together with the Presidency, will continue to lead celebrations and commemorations of national days. In line with the directive from the President, we have begun a process of ensuring that all political parties represented in Parliament take part in these events.
We take this opportunity to thank the leaders of political parties for working together with us to ensure maximum and diverse participation in the celebrations and commemorations of national days. From now on, national days will no longer be seen as the exclusive preserve of certain sections of our society. We are building a country united in its diversity.
In order to sustain the momentum we have built up in this regard, provinces and municipalities will have to play a major role in mobilising communities to attend these events. Provinces and municipalities must therefore be part of the planning and the development of programmes for these events to ensure that they are relevant and can appeal to the targeted communities.
During the month of June we will be commemorating the 34th anniversary of the June 16 youth uprising. The Youth Day commemoration for this year will be in Kanyamazane in Mpumalanga. Of significance is that we will be marking this important event with the rest of the world who would have come to our country for the World Cup. It is therefore important that we continue to mobilise young people to participate in cultural activities for the 2010 World Cup and beyond.
In pursuit of this objective, the Department of Arts and Culture continues to encourage mass participation, especially by young people, in arts and culture. This we do through programmes such as the Arts Education Programme, which we have undertaken in partnership with the Department of Education. Through this programme, we seek to expand access to arts education and also improve the quality of arts and culture education, especially in public schools.
In addition, through the SA Schools Choral Eisteddfod, we continue to encourage mass participation by young people, especially learners, in choral music. This event, which also contributes to social cohesion and fosters nation-building, last year alone drew the participation of about 5 000 learners from across all provinces.
We have also partnered with the Field Band Foundation to strengthen efforts to build a strong and sustainable youth band movement across the country.
Another mass participation project is the My 2010 School Adventure competition. Through this programme, we seek to mobilise our young people behind the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Furthermore, this programme seeks to encourage our young people to know and take pride in their national symbols. Also linked to this initiative is the Fly the Flag in Every School campaign, through which we seek to further entrench an appreciation of our national symbols, in particular the national flag, amongst learners in all our schools.
This campaign is conducted in partnership with the provincial departments of education as well as the provincial departments of sport, recreation, arts and culture.
As we move forward, we will pay attention to ensuring that the Arts in School programme is implemented in all provinces. As part of our community arts project and developing performances in the rural areas, we will be participating in the establishment of a community arts centres in Muyexe in Limpopo this year. We will also be hosting a traditional music and dance festival in Muyexe.
We are doing all of this to ensure mass participation in arts and culture, especially by young people throughout the length and breadth of our country. We must not fail in these initiatives because the youth are the future of our country. Furthermore, we continue to encourage the use and promotion of all languages, especially among young people, through our programme to encourage multilingualism, and through the development of language policies and legislation.
Working together with the National Heritage Council, we have begun a process of consultation with all provinces on the implementation of the National Liberation Heritage Route. The involvement of provinces in this project can never be overemphasised. Indeed, we rely on provinces and municipalities to strengthen the process of identifying local heroes and heroines, as well as sites that will form part of the National Liberation Heritage Route. Provinces and municipalities also have a role to play in ensuring that the stories of these heroes and heroines, and the sites where they lived, are told correctly and in full.
Last year we announced the completion of a draft national policy on intangible cultural heritage. On implementation, the policy will affirm previously neglected aspects of our heritage such as folklore, performance and indigenous knowledge systems. Part of what this policy will do will be to ensure that the oral testimonies, especially of the indigenous people, the ordinary men and women of our country, are recorded as part of our history and are passed on to future generations. We will therefore rely on provinces to mobilise local communities to bring forward their perspective and experiences.
Part of the reconstruction and development of our country requires that we pay attention to the moral regeneration of our society. Moral regeneration is central to the objective of promoting the positive values and fully entrenching the values of ubuntu within our society.
The Department of Arts and Culture will therefore continue to work with the Moral Regeneration Movement in promoting the renewal of our society. This year we will participate in activities that form part of Moral Regeneration Month in July, to be held in the North West province. Furthermore, the department will this year undertake research into moral regeneration initiatives throughout the country to assess their impact on our society.
In conclusion, let me start by thanking members of the select portfolio committee for their oversight on the work of 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 well with us as we together build this nation and promote social cohesion.
Let me also thank the director-general, managers and staff of the Department of Arts and Culture for their hard work, and for ensuring that we remain focused on the task at hand. Finally, I take this opportunity to wish our national team, Bafana Bafana, well during the World Cup. We have no doubt that they will indeed do their best to make us proud. Afrika ke nako! [Africa, now is the time!] Ke a leboga. [Thank you.] [Applause.]