Chairperson and hon members, indeed it is my pleasure to be part of this important debate of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, when we celebrate Heritage Month with the people of South Africa.
As we all know, September marks the annual Heritage Month celebration in our country. This month, we invite all South Africans, irrespective of race, class or gender, to be part of the celebrations and to come out of their cocoons, as the Freedom Charter states quite clearly that South Africa belongs to all of us, black and white, and this government has always welcomed people from all races in all its activities and programmes. I agree with uBaba uShenge ukuthi nami ngangikhona eVryheid azange ngibabone abanye abantu angazi ukuthi kwakwenzenjani ... [I agree with hon Shenge that I was also present in Vryheid and I did not see other people, I am not sure what was happening ...] and this happens year in and year out.
In recognition of the value created by the craft segment of our economy, we have this year, as the Department of Arts and Culture, adopted the theme: "Celebrating South African Craft, our Heritage" as the focus of the 2009 Heritage Month celebrations. This theme is an opportunity to highlight the socioeconomic value of the craft industry, especially in our rural areas, and it encourages further development of our communities. This theme enables us to encourage not only further investment in the craft sector of our economy, but also to contribute to nation-building and social cohesion.
The main Heritage Day celebrations will take place in Moroke, at the Ntwampe stadium, in the Greater Tubatse Municipality in Limpopo. This event will be addressed by our Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe, as it will be an official national programme.
In this month, therefore, we recognise the importance of our heritage and our diverse cultural expressions that together shape and build our national culture. We also pay attention to the artefacts made by our ancestors through the generations that have preceded us. We celebrate these men and women of wisdom, whose accomplishments are testimony to the fact that great works of art can come from a culture rooted in the realities of our people.
It is in this context, therefore, that yesterday we launched Heritage Month at one of our World Heritage sites, the Mapungubwe National Park, which is found at the meeting place between ourselves, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe where the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers meet.
This offered us an opportunity to admire the cultural and economic wealth that came from the Mapungubwe people, whose architects built a royal residence and whose blacksmiths built tools and artworks out of iron and gold many hundreds of years ago. They were part of a thriving Indian Ocean trade system. This is where the golden rhino and bowls, tools and pottery, as well as glass beads and jewellery were found.
Through our knowledge of Mapungubwe and Thulamela, of the finds of the Klasies River and Blombos Cave, and through archaeological studies of rock art, we can say that South Africa has a rich heritage that is unique in the evidence it provides of our earliest human beings.
We should be proud, therefore, that South Africa possesses such vast natural beauty and heritage of outstanding universal value through our eight World Heritage Sites, namely Mapungubwe, Robben Island, Vredefort Dome, the Cradle of Humankind, the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, the Richtersveld, the Isimangaliso Wetland Park and the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. We also know that in our part of the world, humans have lived for about 2 million years and history books tell us that between 200 000 and 100 000 years ago modern humans, the hunter-gatherers, also resided in South Africa. Our heritage is universal.
South African heritage tells the story not only of our nation, but also of our world. Through our liberation struggle, our cultural workers also showed us the path to building a people's culture. As the liberation movement grew in strength, these artists created social awareness and asserted our right to have our own history and develop our culture. Against all odds, they triumphed against apartheid. They asserted what Amilcar Cabral pointed out, which is that "National liberation is necessarily an act of culture."
They contributed in giving us an identity not rooted in oppression but in liberation. Learning from these lessons of our struggle through telling and retelling our stories and working with our cultural workers, we can do more to strengthen and promote our culture and heritage. This is why we say today that culture must be rooted in the realities of our people, in our daily lives, in our struggles and victories.
In building our nation and taking forward the national democratic revolution, our people must continue to be inspired by a culture that addresses their needs and that helps them to build on the freedom won in 1994.
The National Heritage Council is initiating a national liberation heritage- route project, as a story that will tell and depict the journey of liberation through the struggles against colonialism and apartheid.
During Heritage Month, we reaffirm the rights of each and every one of us to lead a rich and productive cultural life. It is in the context of contributing to the world and building our country and our continent that the creative industries are critical to us and to nation-building. They create critical opportunities to uplift and empower our people economically, especially our women, the youth and people with disabilities.
This year we focus on the role that crafts play in building our nation. Our people, through their creativity, are constantly developing traditional cultural expressions, such as the design and production of crafts, basket- weaving and songs. These expressions make meaning and establish identity. The works of art are made from clay, paper, cardboard, wire and plastic bags, among other things. This collective creativity provides a basis for social cohesion and sustainable development.
Studies indicate that 1,2 million people earn their living through crafts and related trade areas. The key is to strengthen the sector and to create enabling conditions for these areas to flourish. The Department of Trade and Industry estimates that South Africa's craft sector alone contributes about R2 billion to South Africa's Gross Domestic Product annually. Yet, despite an abundance of individual and community artistic and entrepreneurial skills, there is still exploitation, with primary producers selling their goods through middlemen. This limits their earnings and prevents their full and active participation in the industry.
The problems are compounded in that there is no recognised representative body that promotes the rights of crafters, and most raw materials are imported and are thus unaffordable for many of our people. Through our Investing in Culture programme, we are addressing these and other concerns. Since 2005, we have spent over R300 million on supporting craft projects so that they can become self-sustaining small businesses.
We are equipping crafters with business skills through this programme to enable them to compete and market their products. Working together with all our stakeholders, we shall improve on these initiatives.
We believe that we should focus on women, especially rural women, as far as craft and craft production are concerned. Sustainable craft development also requires sustaining the participation of women in the crafts industry. We are proud that the majority of projects funded since 2005 are projects led and carried out by women. We acknowledge that more needs to be done in this regard. We also believe that crafts can contribute meaningfully to the government's rural development objectives.
The focus on crafts therefore is part of our commitment to the development and revitalisation of our rural economies. It is our belief that tangible programmes and strong marketing campaigns in the craft sector will contribute to rural development. This year, for the first time, we held the National Craft Awards to showcase and encourage craft enterprises throughout the country and to raise the profile of the craft industry, by rewarding selected works that demonstrated great skill and innovation.
We need to acknowledge that South Africa is recognised today as a global player in the arts, culture and heritage sector. This year's Heritage Month celebrations come at a time when South Africa is gaining ground in the world's arts, culture and heritage landscape. Let us consolidate the work we are doing to showcase our arts, crafts and heritage for the 2010 Fifa World Cup and, of course, we are ready for the World Cup.
From 21 September to 23 September 2009, we will host the Afrikaans-Dutch festival conference called Roots, with the Minister of European Affairs from the Netherlands and with Flemish co-operation. Mr Mulder, we do recognise Afrikaans as an African language, and we will be having a discussion with the Dutch to look at the roots of Afrikaans, which, of course, were planted in South Africa on the African continent. This will not only help to strengthen our cultural relations with the Dutch government and people, but will also build on the solidarity that started during the apartheid years.
Next week, we are also hosting the Fourth World Summit on Arts and Culture for the first time on African soil. This will be held from 22 September to 25 September in Newtown, Johannesburg. All these platforms offer us the opportunity to demonstrate the centrality of arts and culture in development and in promoting opportunities for our artists to exchange ideas with others and forge common projects across the globe. Our task, therefore, is to strengthen further our sense of belonging to South Africa. Through our crafts and through our arts and culture programmes we will nurture a common value system that strengthens our unity as a nation. I do believe, hon Lotriet, that this government has worked hard to ensure social cohesion and unity in our nation.
Many of the museums and programmes that were started during colonialism and apartheid times are still there. We still have the Voortrekker monument, and nobody has messed with it. We only have the Albert Luthuli museum as one of the new programmes that were started by this government. All we are asking for is to open up these facilities and to welcome all our people, even those that were marginalised before.
As we transform our country, we need to ensure that through heritage, arts and culture we build cohesive, sustainable and caring communities. Only in this way do we play our part in the common effort to expedite our national development. Only in this way do we remain true to the Freedom Charter, which directs us to discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life.
I take this opportunity therefore, Chairperson, to invite all of you to participate in our National Heritage Day celebrations in Limpopo and also in celebrations that will take place in all our provinces on 24 September 2009. I also hope that I will not be disappointed, as the hon Buthelezi was, by many of our people, particularly the minorities, not participating on that day. I want to wish all of you a happy Heritage Month and a happy Heritage Day. I thank you. [Applause.]