Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, Paul Mashatile, hon members, the national Department of Arts and Culture's budget allocation of R2 406 billion represents a growth of 25,5% from R1,3 billion in 2006-07 to R2,6 billion in 2009-10. It is noted that this growth was mainly due to the additional expenditure required as conditional grants for capital projects such as developing Freedom Park, upgrading and maintaining declared cultural institutions and improving public and community library services.
The co-ordination of the funding of the literary, visual and performing arts between the various government departments, the National Arts Council, provinces and their various structures as well as the lottery trust fund to ensure sustainability, has become a matter of urgency.
While government is providing various funding mechanisms, the arts, culture and heritage community must understand its responsibility to ensure good governance when it accesses public funding, whether it is from public funds or from donors. The Western Cape province is looking forward to discussing the proposed partnerships regarding the national department's arts, culture and heritage programmes for women, children and persons with disabilities in 2010.
Daar is kennis geneem van die onlangse uitspraak van die Hooggeregshof in Pretoria, rakende die noodsaaklikheid vir die Departement van Kuns en Kultuur om nasionale wetgewing te ontwikkel, rakende die gelyke status van die elf amptelike tale.
Dit is ook nodig dat nouer samewerking plaasvind tussen die taaldienste van die nasionale en provinsiale regerings, sowel as di van munisipaliteite en die taalontwikkelingsliggame wat by universiteite gesetel is.(Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Cognisance is taken of the recent judgment by the High Court in Pretoria, regarding the necessity for the Department of Arts and Culture to develop national legislation regarding the equal status of the 11 official languages.
It is also imperative that closer co-operation takes place among the language services of the national and provincial governments as well as those of the municipalities and the language development bodies that reside at the universities.]
In the Western Cape, a provincial language policy was developed in 2000. The Western Cape department of cultural affairs and sport, together with its partner, the Western Cape Language Committee, is responsible for oversight on the implementation of the provincial language policy as well as the provision of language services, translation, editing and interpretation, to all departments in the provincial government of the Western Cape. Aligned to the constitutional mandates, and in ensuring the equal status of the three official languages of the Western Cape, it is important to bear in mind that an active process of promoting the previously marginalised indigenous languages - this includes isiXhosa as a marginalised official language and the Khoi, Nama and San languages, as well as sign language and deaf awareness - needs to be maintained by means of awareness programmes across our province and in all the provincial departments and organs of state.
As far as the promotion of marginalised languages is concerned, it is worth noting that the Western Cape department of cultural affairs and sport received the Pan South African Language Board, PanSALB, multilingualism award for the public sector. It was received from the PanSALB Language Board in March 2010, for its campaign to promote multilingualism through its Nama project.
The Department of Arts and Culture indicated that it promotes job creation, skills development and economic empowerment; and supports business start- ups and poverty alleviation projects, through its Investing in Culture programme.
A question that arises, however, is: How sustainable are some of these projects that are funded through this programme and how does this interact with local economic development strategies as well as provincial economic development strategies?
The Department of Arts and Culture is responsible for administering the cultural agreements that the South African government has entered into over the last 15 years. However, it has become necessary that international co- operation in arts, culture and heritage should be co-ordinated between the national and provincial spheres, given the fact that all provinces do have bilateral agreements with other regional governments. Both national and provincial government initiatives should complement one other.
Die nasionale Departement van Kuns en Kultuur beoog om gedurende die jaar 'n nuwe nasionale raamwerk te ontwikkel vir die befondsing en gradering van al die departement se statutre instellings, en meer spesifiek, museums.
Die Wes-Kaap verwelkom hierdie doelwit, aangesien dit noodsaaklik is om te bepaal wat verstaan word onder nasionale museums, soos vervat in die Grondwet.
Provinsies moet op hulle beurt weer die eksklusiewe wetgewende bevoegdheid uitoefen ten opsigte van museums anders as na sionale museums. Tans is daar geen definisie van wat 'n nasionale museum is nie en maak dit die wreld uiters moeilik vir provinsies om hulle grondwetlike mandaat uit te voer.
Tien persent van Afrika se museums is in die Wes-Kaap gevestig. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat 'n nuwe museumbeleid en wetgewing, nie net op nasionale vlak, maar ook op provinsiale vlak, gefinaliseer word. Die nuwe konsep museumbeleid van die Wes-Kaap word binnekort bekend gestel vir kommentaar.
Dringende wysigings is nodig aan veral die Nasionale Erfenishulpbronnewet van 1999, om sekere tekortkominge en uitdagings aan te spreek. Die meeste daarvan is uitgewys in die Heritage Legislation Review Report, wat deur die nasionale departement geloods is. Die Wes-Kaapprovinsie word veral gekonfronteer met van hierdie uitdagings. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[During the course of the year the national Department of Arts and Culture intends to develop a new national framework for the funding and grading of all the department's statutory institutions, more specifically, museums.
The Western Cape welcomes this objective, since it is important to determine what is understood by national museums as it is contained in the Constitution.
In turn, provinces have to exercise the exclusive legislative powers with regard to museums differently to that of national museums. Currently there is no definition of what a national museum is and this makes the world a very difficult place for provinces to execute their constitutional mandate.
Ten per cent of Africa's museums can be found in the Western Cape. It is therefore important that a new museum policy and legislation are finalised, not only on a national level, but also on a provincial level. The new draft museum policy of the Western Cape will be published shortly for comment.
Amendments are urgently needed, especially to the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999, to address certain shortcomings and challenges. Most of these were pointed out in the Heritage Legislation Review Report, which was launched by the national department. Some of these challenges are what the Western Cape province is grappling with in particular.]
As a lead department in social cohesion, the museum service and provincial museums will host a number of events on public holidays and other commemorative, special and historic days, including the Freedom Day commemoration, International Museum Day and Heritage Day. Earlier this year, the department, together with the department of economic development and tourism, commissioned a study to assess the impact of the heritage sector on the economy of the Western Cape.
South Africa, and also the Western Cape, have a rich natural and cultural heritage. Heritage Western Cape, the provincial heritage resource authority responsible for the promotion and preservation of heritage resources in our Western Cape province, has declared three archaeological heritage sites on the West Coast as provincial heritage sites.
A fourth one, the Community House building here in Cape Town, was gazetted on 19 February 2010. During the current year, Heritage Western Cape will continue its efforts in engaging with communities in the province to identify and protect its rich and culturally diverse heritage.
The allocations for the community library services conditional grant will be extended over the MTEF period until 2012-13. The national library service funds libraries and institutions must provide information services and develop related policy. It is noted that the new national library in Pretoria was completed in 2008-O9, seemingly funded, to a large degree, from the conditional grant for community libraries.
These are praiseworthy objectives. However, the funding of an effective, efficient and economic public library service aligned with the constitutional mandate remains one of our country's greatest challenges. It is hoped that a solution for the funding of public libraries will be finalised as a matter of urgency in order to regularise the situation between the provincial and local spheres of government in all nine provinces.
In 2009, 43 libraries were built or upgraded. I am happy to report that the national Departments of Arts and Culture and Public Works, the Western Cape departments of cultural affairs and sport and transport and public works have reached an agreement on the transfer of the two buildings that house the Western Cape Archives and Records Service.
Finally, the provincial government of the Western Cape would like to thank the Minister, the Deputy Minister and the national Department of Arts and Culture for the support and co-operation we receive. Let us join hands and use arts and culture to help build a socially cohesive society for all our inhabitants. I thank you. [Applause.]
Dr U KEERATH (KwaZulu-Natal): Chair, hon Ministers, members of the Council, it was Amilcar Cabral who described cultural practise as an act of liberation. I want to go a step further and say it is an act of decolonisation of our minds. Therefore, culture is the repertoire of our behaviour, the essence of who we are, our identity and our sense of belonging. Therefore, the manner in which we spend our public finances must contribute to the development of the soul of the province and promote its cultural liberation.
The Department of Arts and Culture must enhance, grow, protect and regulate the trade in art and cultural artefacts. To me, this remains a serious challenge and a void that requires strategic thinking and careful consideration. Coupled with this, we must protect our hard-earned heritage. We must protect our small entrepreneurs, our beaders in the rural areas and those who deal with art and cultural artefacts. I stress this point because the illicit trading in art and cultural artefacts has recently increased dramatically.
We have to recognise that the arts have incubators and catalysts to impart new skills and we must make sure that our artists are given a creative space to give birth to their talents.
We know that museums and galleries showcase great products of human creativity and innovation. Museums are also said to be the repositories of culture and must be given pre-eminence. Good art always finds an audience. How true! But art is also vulnerable to commercial exploitation.
Hon members, I want to stress that we do need social policy experiments, but we also need engagement. We are still in the struggle to counter cultural imperialism. We know all too well that Western culture almost provides diffusion and dilution of African culture. We will know that if we study the case of Solomon Linda, the composer of the world-renowned song, Mbube, which was played in the blockbuster film, The Lion King. Therefore, securing the intellectual property rights for our provincial musicians is crucially important. We need buy-in from them.
Our cultural liberation must encourage nation-building, social cohesion and unity in diversity. This will be the basis for all practical coexistence, and it will further foster solidarity and inclusivity.
It is further worrying to note that we need to ensure the acceptance and utilisation of all African languages. It is said that language, the conveyor of one's culture, is the mode of communication. It takes various forms such as music, dance and the performing arts. If the department fails in this mandate, we shall have failed not only our province, but the entire country. We need to capitalise on indigenous languages; we need a revival of some sort.
While it is heartening to learn that the provincial department of arts and culture is said to provide bursaries to students interested in arts and culture and language studies, more needs to be done.
In conclusion, we must always keep in mind that our heritage contributes to redressing past inequalities; it educates; deepens our understanding of society and encourages us to empathise with the experiences of others; it facilitates healing and material and symbolic restitution; and it promotes new and previously neglected research into our rich oral traditions.
Let us not fail our people. Let us enhance our cultural and linguistic practices. Let us ensure the full realisation of our people's rights, especially the social and cultural rights. And let us go forward in promoting our indigenous language.
Ngiyabonga kakhulu Sihlalo. [Thank you very much, Deputy Chair.] [Applause.]