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Chairperson and honourable members -

At the end of the first term of our nascent democracy, an analysis of our record in government is essential. It will serve to inform our future performance, to assess our efficacy and to improve our future programmes and projects.

In 1994 we were faced with the task of creating a system that worked and wherein the co-operation between national and provincial could be maximised to the benefit of the country as a whole. Our success in meeting the challenges, foreseen and unexpected, that shaped and established the organisations that exist today bares testimony to our commitment to serving the people of this country.

When DACST was established our portfolio was characterised by: -

* Limited capacity, personnel, resources and systems;

* A virtual absence of government policy, strategy and legal frameworks for the management, development and support of modern and competitive sectors;

* A state funded institutional framework and a government bureaucracy whose management and staffing reflected severe imbalances with regard to race and gender representivity;

* A cultural and scientific sector devoid of creative and innovative programmes, activities and projects aimed at improving the quality of life for the majority of citizens;

* A funding dispensation almost exclusively supporting a set of science councils, arts councils, museums and monuments essentially promoting and satisfying the interests and needs of a privileged minority;

* A new provincial dispensation with new needs;

* A demoralised cultural and scientific dispensation characterised by a lack of common purpose, vision and co-operation between the public, private, civil and community sectors of society;

* South African culture and science isolated from the international mainstream.

To overcome this legacy, DACST set out a transformation agenda aimed at: -

* Establishing an effective and representative new department;

* Developing a vision, strategy, policy, and enabling legislation for DACST to align the arts and culture, and science and technology sectors to the national strategic and policy imperatives of the RDP and GEAR;

* Transforming the institutional frameworks to allow for democratic participation, creativity, growth and innovation;

* Defining and implementing a portfolio of key strategic and integrated programmes, activities and projects to drive the transformation agenda;

* Developing mechanisms and systems to enable an equitable redistribution and reprioritisation of resources, capacity and funding;

* Establishing new working capacity and relations with the provinces;

* Establishing a new set of inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary working relations and partnerships with the public, private, civil and community sectors;

* Establishing dynamic international relations, exchanges and agreements.

Since 1994, our national budget has been increased by approximately 150% from an amount of R329,174 million to our current figure of R804,409 million. An overview of how policy has been translated into hard delivery will illustrate how this Department and its provincial partners, in the early stages of our democracy, have made a lasting contribution to strengthening our nationhood, our competitiveness and, most importantly, our enduring faith in the ability of South Africa's democratic government to overcome the bitterness of the past and to create a united and reconciled nation, in short - a winning nation.

Throughout our work of the last five years we have endeavoured to work in partnership with the provinces. Through an analysis of our initiatives in arts and culture, I hope to illustrate how the national and provincial departments have formed a winning team for meeting the challenges. Furthermore, we have worked at creating leading institutions, ensuring that our science, technology and engineering sectors are at the forefront of international developments. Indeed, we have worked very hard at establishing the arts as an integral part of our national identity and promoting the national and international recognition of our dynamic multi-culturalism. We have striven to establish all of these areas of endeavour as competitive, empowered and viable aspects of our nationhood.

As I have said before, it is my belief that strong institutions form the cornerstone of successful democracies. In 1994, four institutions located in four of the provinces, the Performing Arts Councils (PACs), accounted for 67,7% of the arts budget. The services of these institutions targeted an urban minority. Chair, I am happy to report that the four Performing Arts Councils now account for 32,4% of the arts and culture budget and have been transformed to meet the needs of the majority of the country's people. The reduction in funding of the PACs has also meant that hundreds of grants totalling R39, 199 million were allocated to arts and culture projects that had social and economic relevance through-out the country.

We have been faced with the daunting task of re-orientating the entire framework of management of the sectors under our jurisdiction. This process has involved shifting and broadening the focus of the organisations directing the sectors as well as ensuring the relevancy and representivity of the institutions that, to a large extent, control the fields. This has meant that we have had to create new institutions. These include: - the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB), the National Research Foundation (NRF), the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the National Arts Council (NAC), the National Archives Commission, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the National Heritage Council (NHC), the National Heritage Resources Agency (NHRC) and the National Geographical Names Council. These institutions will ensure that the sectors are well served and maintained for a long time to come.

The decision to create two new flagship institutions forms part of the process of re-orienting our heritage institutions to serving the needs of all South Africans. Under this system, the museums and galleries in the flagships will operate in a defined framework to address the national heritage in its entirety. The new national museum service will ensure that all areas, rural and urban, have accessible museum facilities. Our budget of R110m indicates substantial support for these institutions and emphasises our commitment to our national heritage.

The National Heritage legislation currently being finalised by Parliament will go a long way to addressing the overall management of our heritage and national collections. The Bills will stimulate partnership between communities and heritage institutions and provide a cohesive and creative vision of the path ahead for cultural institutions.

A creative vision for science and development will be concretised within an institutional framework by the National Research Foundation (NRF), whose establishment is currently being finalised. The NRF will promote, support and co-ordinate research, human resource development, infrastructure provision and capacity building in order to advance technological development in the field of science and technology, including indigenous technology. In doing so, it will contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of all of the people of South Africa. The budget of the NRF for 1999/2000 is R250, 570 million.

Like the NRF, the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) is one of the strong institutions whose functioning contributes to democracy in the country. It is a prime example of our commitment to arms-length management in the governance of the arts. The legislation establishing the NAC calls for the functioning of a strong National Arts Council predicated on strong Provincial Arts Councils. This challenge is currently being addressed through the operationalisation of provincial Arts and Culture Councils.

Cumulatively, DACST and the NAC have, since 1994, funded 1215 projects from across the spectrum of arts and culture. In just two years, the NAC has made 628 grants worth R20 million to a variety of projects in all of the provinces. In ensuring that the full range of South African arts is funded, the NAC is contributing to our sense of common nationhood.

The budget for the NAC for 1999/2000 is R25 million. Additionally, our current budget dedicates R55, 891 million to new initiatives in arts, culture and heritage, a noteworthy five-year achievement.

To foster multi-lingualism and address the past inequalities in the promotion of the country's languages, R26m has been allocated to language programmes. In 1994 the government only spent about R 6 million on language. This significant increase in the budget conveys our seriousness when it comes to the question of multi-lingualism.

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is poised to make as significant a contribution as the NAC in affirming our national identity. Unlike the discredited film subsidy scheme of the past, our initiatives have aime at empowering aspirant film makers from all communities. While the NFVF is being operationalised, the Department has used an arms-length advisory panel and continued to develop this important sector through focussing on key aspects of it, including script writing, training and production. Our film interventions were so successful that, through the Interim Film Fund, we have funded 261 new film projects since 1994 with approximately R 20 million.

In line with our commitment to contributing to the sense of nationhood in South Africa, the Department and the provincial departments in partnership organise the annual Freedom Day celebrations. Each year Freedom Day is acknowledged with events in all of the nine provinces. As well as the countrywide celebrations, a single province is chosen annually by the President as the main venue for a primary Freedom Day event that is attended by him. Today I can announce that the President has chosen Umtata as the venue for the last Freedom Day celebrations during his tenure of office. This year's celebrations will also be special, in that my Department and the Province of the Eastern Cape, together with the SANDF, will co-host Freedom Day. We have decided on this arrangement, since the SANDF , this year, will also celebrate its five years of existence in a democratic dispensation. In the spirit of nation building the theme of the Freedom Day celebrations is unity, peace and prosperity.

Another key component of DACST's function in which provinces are integrally involved is the development and administration of South Africa's archive system to which R14, 643 million of our budget is dedicated. We are currently working with the provinces to strengthen the provincial system of archives.

Chair, challenges requiring great national effort arise from time to time. As we stand at the dawn of a new millennium, criminal violence is traumatising our people and the scourge of HIV/AIDS threatens our economy and social fabric.

The AIDS pandemic threatens to erode the nation and has serious and destabilising economic and social ramifications.

We have developed a package of programmes to combat the scourge that confronts us. Projects in the package include the following: -
*
We are in partnership with the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council. An additional R5 million from the science vote was allocated to the AIDS Vaccine Programme.

* We funded the National HIV/AIDS Paper Prayers Campaign with R340 000 for 1998. The project integrated simple, technology-based, skills training in papermaking with artistic expression and effective HIV/AIDS education. Other relevant capacity-building interventions also formed part of this dynamic and innovative endeavour. The project was run in each of the nine provinces.

* We initiated a terminology programme on HIV/AIDS. The project continues to answer the pressing need to develop and publicise terms for HIV/AIDS and related issues in languages accessible to all. It is making a significant impact on the quality of service offered by many rural and urban AIDS-related organisations.

* In a national project that is estimated to have reached over three hundred thousand of the country's youth, 1998 was declared the Year of Science and Technology. HIV/AIDS awareness formed a vital part of the programme and a special touch-screen exhibition dedicated to HIV/AIDS issues and allowing participants to access specific and general information was developed.

Crime, too, constitutes a major threat to the growth of our democracy, our economy and the development of our communities and our country. In this regard we have undertaken a number of initiatives.

The Innovation Fund is a policy instrument to lever economic and social resources. Last year's pilot project has produced some inspiring results that suggest that accessing the enormous innovation potential in South Africa could give us a leading edge in addressing problems that exist for communities around the world.

The Computerised Intelligent Firearm Licensing and Authorisation Consortium Project received R5 million and is an example of the dynamic projects funded in round one. The Project seeks to develop "intelligent" and personalised firearms that can be programmed to operate for an identified user for specified time periods. The project will also assist with the regulation in licensing weapons electronically.

Chair, in the first round of the Innovation Fund in which R30 million was invested, my Department has shown how government funding can provide the impetus and resources to develop international market-edge technology. The pilot project has produced exciting advances in socially and economically relevant areas of life and the growth of the project promises great things.

Increasingly there is an understanding of the complex relationship between levels of crime and the environments or contexts in which crime exists. Within the broad national framework of reconstruction and development, the Department was allocated R50 million to build arts and culture facilities aimed at the Stabilisation of Youth and Children. We have worked closely with provincial and local governments in meeting this challenge.

Chair, I am proud to report that the pioneering RDP-funded programme that we have undertaken has to date built or renovated approximately forty-one facilities around the country that will be operational by the end of the year. These include numerous libraries, arts centres, multi-purpose venues, facilities that support both arts and sports in communities and even a travelling community arts centre in the Northern Cape. This culture in community project stands as a shining example of what successful planning and co-ordination at national, provincial and local levels can achieve.

Some of the RDP projects are located within the National Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs). To capitalise on the vast potential of tourism as an income-generator for the country, three surveys were commissioned to assess the potential benefits of cultural tourism in SDIs at Lubombo, the Wild Coast and the Maputo Corridor. The studies focused on projects that will contribute to economic empowerment and job creation in the areas. DACST also facilitated consultative meetings with the provinces, regional and district offices and implemented training programmes aimed at maximising the potential of emerging artists in the designated areas.

This year DACST is launching a two year technology transfer pilot programme, the Technology Stations Programme (TSP), aimed at increasing innovative activity amongst targeted sector specific SMMEs through technikon programmes that facilitate the strengthening and upgrading of technikon capacity and facilities to service the needs of this sector. The IDRC of Canada supported DACST in identifying appropriate technikons for participation in the pilot Technology Station Programme (TSP). The following technikons are participating :
* North-West and Mangosuthu, in chemicals;

* Freestate in metals/value adding, and

* Pretoria in electronics;

The Department has also been successful in securing support from the European Union for a three-year SMME targeted technology transfer programme involving Innovation Centres, Technology Demonstration Centres and Incubators according to a R36 million business plan. It is expected that implementation of the EU supported pilots will be rolled out over the next six months within the protocols set by the EU.

The reluctance or inability to see African societies as sources of knowledge and ideas should be countered by deeper knowledge of African cultures, communities, production systems and technologies. Our Science and Technology institutions can do much more to investigate these phenomena, and to nourish their research programmes with better knowledge about Africa. Knowledge of Africa's cultures and indigenous technologies may also improve the way science and maths are transmitted in the education sector, helping ignite the fires of curiosity and thus increasing the pool of science students and practitioners. It is for this reason that we have increased the budget of the Africa Institute by 67,1% this year, subject to major changes in research direction which the Council is now implementing.

This leads me to the issue of indigenous knowledge and technologies. In an era where global markets and global standards prevail, particularly for countries at the periphery of the global economy, it is better to aim for niche products than to compete in heavily subscribed areas. Moreover, in a world that runs increasingly on knowledge, systems of knowledge that are less accessible to others offer a potential competitive advantage. It is for this reason that DACST, in the first cycle of the Innovation Fund, opened a window for innovations based on South Africa's indigenous bio-diversity. The National Research Foundation will give grants of R3,5 million to further science-oriented indigenous knowledge.

On an international level, the United States-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) is an extremely important political instrument for the leveraging of our international policy objectives. We are pleased to report the most productive meeting to date of the Science and Technology Committee of the BNC. Among many other important goals reached, an agreement between South Africa, the United States and the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) to establish a Satellite Laser Ranging System (SLRS) in South Africa has been finalised. All equipment will be paid for by NASA. The R60 million SLRS, which will be the first of its kind on the African continent, will form part of an international network of some forty similar instruments. The SLRS will enable the extremely accurate determination of satellite altitudes, thus providing crucial geodetic data on, for example, the variation of sea levels which, in turn, are important indicators of global climatic change. South Africa's financial contribution to this project will simply be to cover the operating costs, an amount of approximately R1,5 million.

Chair, South Africans are reaching for the stars in many ways. It is with pleasure that I note that, at the end of last month, Sunsat, South Africa's first locally designed and built satellite was successfully launched into space in a co-operative venture with NASA.

In the five-year period since 1994, DACST has, with the valued support and guidance of its provincial partners and the Select Committee, achieved so much. Some of the achievements include :
*
Processed seventeen pieces of legislation
* Built approximately forty-one community centres

* Allocated R55, 891 million to new initiatives in arts and culture

* Established approximately fourteen new institutions

* Showcased South African culture and talent on an international level at major events such as Expo-Lisbon '98, the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, the XII Non-Aligned Movement Summit and others

* Reviewed and transformed twelve Science, Engineering and Technology Institutions

* Established language as a vital component of nation-building and promoted multi-lingualism

* Increased the efficiency and service-delivery of the country's National Archives

* Funded hundreds of projects ranging from micro-initiatives to projects of national and international importance

* Developed a new arts council, the NAC, to a funding level of R 25 million

* Funded 261 film projects

* Introduced a new Innovation Fund.

In closing I would like to thank the officials at both national and provincial offices who have worked towards achieving what we have over the last five years. They should be commended on the fact that so much was built from nothing in a comparatively short space of time.

Thank you.

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