Good afternoon, hon Minister and Deputy Minister in her absence. I am proud to be able to stand here as a South African representing the rest of South Africa under the guise of the DA. Before I start with my speech, I want to honour artists like James Mathews, Richard Rive, Gibson Kente, Mongane Wally Serote, Bessie Head, Athol Fugard, Peter Clarke and others. These artists used arts and culture to unite the country through a shared cultural heritage, and they kept the fires of the struggle burning when there was a lack of transparency.
The objectives of this department is correctly chosen: nation-building and social cohesion. This is a mammoth task for a still racially divided country searching for that elusive yet attainable vision of our past President, Nelson Mandela. He saw this as his highest calling, encapsulated in the phrase of creating a rainbow nation and giving credence to what the Freedom Charter says: South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
But how do we achieve this togetherness and harness our collective energies, talents and creative geniuses? This department is enviably positioned to create a new cultural heritage and a new South African identity. However, poor financial planning is at the heart of this department's failures. This department, as other speakers have said, presented a budget of R3,5 billion. In their presentation, they planned to spend only 98% of the department's allocated funds. Hon Chair and hon Minister, this is the first time that I have ever heard of a government department planning to underspend.
An underspending of 2% may not seem much, but it represents underspending of R70 million. The R70 million could have gone a long way towards the implementation of the Mzansi Golden Economy strategy. The Mzansi Golden Economy strategy has been developed by this department to contribute to the national priorities of job creation and economic development. The DA fully supports this strategy as it could alleviate poverty through job creation and also broaden the arts sector.
Alternatively, the R70 million could have been used towards the establishment of provincial arts and culture structures in provinces like Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, which do not have such structures. Also, this could have led to the creation of permanent jobs and, of course, decent jobs within the sector. The portfolio committee must urge the department to utilise all its allocated funds through proper planning, or must we question whether this money will be channelled to unfunded mandates? Hon Minister, I sincerely hope not.
Another key objective of this department is to create a South African cultural heritage. In order to achieve this, it is important that we debunk the myth that one party can drive the heritage agenda, because it only gives rise to ethnocentrism and the skewed belief that all other cultures should be subservient to the cultural aims of the ANC and their understanding of what should be developed and acknowledged. Ethnic nationalism, as driven by the apartheid architects, is now driven saliently by our present government. This will erode the gains of our freedom struggle. We have the vehicle to facilitate cultural harmony and rectify the historical cultural neglect caused by the ethnocentric policies of apartheid. This department is that vehicle. I trust that the Minister, as he said quite rightly, will ensure that racial harmony develops under his watch.
Culture, and specifically the Department of Arts and Culture, has become an instrument of the ANC and has been reduced to furthering the political culture of this organisation. The DA proposes a way out of this skewed perception of culture. The DA believes that we should protect and promote meaningful cultural, artistic and linguistic diversity, as enshrined in our Constitution, to recognise our diverse history. We must also focus on looking towards the future. As we say in the DA: We must honour our past, but own our future.
Arts and culture should therefore not be reduced to a project or programme, as is currently the case. Our national focus days should be focused on bringing the different communities together and uniting them around a common heritage. Different political parties should share these platforms and talk nation-building, not political strategies and good stories like a stuck record. It is only in this way that the words of Nelson Mandela can find resonance on the African continent and throughout the world:
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.
[Interjections.]
Instead of only building the new, the old in our society should be restored and appreciated - society evolves, is ever changing and never stays the same. We can do that. We can create it when this department can make nation- building and social cohesion happen by uniting us in national action during the celebration of our national days, and I hear say that they are planning to do that.
This is the South Africa we should be striving for; this is the South Africa we should be working towards; this is the South Africa we can build through a common cultural heritage. To be truly South African and not debate, after more than 20 years, whether or not Die Stem should be sung alongside Nkosi Sikilel iAfrika. Reconciliation is a process which must continue today. We must not forget that as a nation.
Our President Nelson Mandela understood that to be truly South African meant to combine our cultures, to understand our collective heritage by merging the two nationally emotive anthems into one and, in such a way, to forge a new South African identity. Let us not succumb to the belief of Du Bois when he said that the problem of the 20th century was the colour line. We are a rainbow nation; now let us make that dream a reality. The open- opportunity society proposed by the DA binds the threads of the rainbow nation, as envisioned by our past President. I thank you. [Applause.]