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13 June 2006

Madam Speaker
Madam Deputy Speaker
Madam Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends

2006 is a significant year for the sector in which our Department operates. As you should all already know, 2006 is the 50th anniversary year of the women’s march to the Union Building to protest against pass laws.

Let me remind you that there are also two centenaries to be celebrated in this year, that of Mahatma Ghandi’s conception in South Africa of the theory of Satyagraha, the philosophy of passive resistance, and the Poll Tax or Bambata Rebellion, both of which events shaped South Africa’s struggle for liberation and in which the principles of our Constitution which are ten years old this year are rooted.

Furthermore, on June 16 it will be 30 years since the commencement of the Soweto Students Uprising, an occurrence that is seen as the start of the final push to liberation. Sadly, 2006 is also a year in which we remember the passing of prominent struggle icons, men and women who formed the events of which I speak, amongst others, Ellen Khuzwayo, Strini Moodley and Stella Sicgau.

At national level, the Cabinet has charged the Department of Arts & Culture with co-ordinating the multitude of commemorations and as the provincial partner in this effort, our Department is working hard to ensure that our people are aware of the significance of these events and that the province is fully engaged in them. The next event in this sequence is Youth Day, which will see the unveiling of a memorial to the Youth of 1976 in the gardens of this Legislature.

Turning to operational issues Madam Speaker,

I present to you a budget of R62 249 million for the 2006/07 financial year, of which Equitable Share is R55 270 million, Conditional Grant of R6,2 million and Statutory Amount of R779 000.

The Budget allocation per programme is as follows:
Programme 1: Administration: R13 502 million
Programme 2: Cultural Affairs: R25 239 million
Programme 3: Library and Information Services: R11 215 million
Programme 4: Sport and Recreation: R11 514 million

Honourable Members,
A major highlight of the first quarter of 2006 has been the submission of a nomination dossier for the Richtersveld Community Conservancy as a World Heritage Site. It is one of four in the Northern Cape that is on South Africa's tentative list of World Heritage Sites and it is the first to be nominated. The dossier was jointly compiled by our Department and consultants appointed by the national Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism with funding we assisted to raise from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The venture, if it succeeds, presents major opportunities for the development of the economy of the Namakwa District and recognition of a culture that is believed to be amongst the World’s oldest. A recent study has shown that South Africa’s seven World Heritage Sites annually attract R100 million in direct private and overseas investment per annum, which figure excludes government expenditure and investment associated with tourism infrastructure that is not under the management structures of the sites themselves, which is believed to be considerably more than the amount just mentioned.

As is well known, the Richtersveld is valuable for its considerable cultural attributes and its biodiversity, but this nomination is particularly special in that it is the first time that South Africa has nominated a site that has been returned to a community under the land restitution programme of government. The area envisaged for inscription is wholly managed and run by the community of the Richtersveld. Should the nomination succeed, the site will serve as a shining example of how communal land management is succeeding in our province and country.

During the course of the 2006/07 year, the nomination will be evaluated by UNESCO, including an on site inspection in August or September and a decision on its inscription is expected in mid-2007.

In my budget speech last year I commented on the excellent work our Museum Service is doing in upgrading the quality of conservation and exhibition and generally enhancing the profile of the Duggan-Cronin photographic collection, one of the treasures of our country. This initiative continues as a major focus of museum activity with two major national exhibitions of material from the collection. One of these is currently on at Museum Africa in Johannesburg where it has been exceptionally well received and will remain for at least six months. A similar exhibition, using different images is currently being created and will be on display in Cape Town later in the year.

The digitisation of the collection begins in earnest this year and will better secure its future conservation and curation through the most modern techniques, also assisting to ensure greater accessibility by researchers and others to the images. At the same time restoration of the Duggan Cronin Gallery, which commenced in 2004, will be completed at a cost of R1,5 million raised from the Lottery Fund.

The Museum Service has also published a heritage tourism map of Fraserburg for the Karoo Hoogland Municipality and as part of ongoing efforts to recognise and highlight marginalised histories; a collaborative project with the members of the Greenpoint Forced Removal Committee has resulted in the publishing of a booklet on the history of that suburb of Kimberley.

In similar vein, an exhibition on the Malay Camp forced removal site will be completed. This project is undertaken in conjunction with the Northern Cape Tourism Authority and the Department of Tourism, Environment and Conservation.

As regards job creation through museum activity, we have created employment opportunities for 11 men and women through collaborative programmes with universities, in amongst other countries, Canada, Israel, Sweden and the USA, as well as within the service’s own archaeological programmes. These projects are through archaeological research also enhancing our knowledge of neglected aspects of the past of the Province.

Furthermore, during the course of the current financial year the community museum at Eksteenfontein will be completed and opened. This public–private project is the result of youth in the town identifying a need to conserve their heritage as an important addition to the already mentioned nomination of the area as a World Heritage Site.

In September last year, the Museums and Heritage Resources Sub-directorate, in conjunction with the Language Services Unit and the National Heritage Council hosted a Provincial Heritage and Culture Consultative Conference in Victoria West.

This policy development initiative brought together community representatives and organisations interested in these sectors under the theme “Creating jobs, economic development and growth through investing in culture”. It set the scene for the province’s contribution to a policy review that has been initiated at national level and led to a sharing of ideas on international trends on how culture can be incorporated into mainstream socio-economic development and growth as an alternative to declining conventional industries. As the Summit resolved, the focus is to diversify the economy from the primary and secondary sectors, create jobs and alleviate poverty. This, we believe, is in line with the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), which will see to the prioritisation of, among others, heritage and cultural industries to drive socio-economic development. The significant aspects of its potential is a major contribution to economic development included in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy and the workshop is scheduled for the third week in July, to assist it to better focus on improving its performance in this area and develop the arguments necessary for these areas to be taken seriously in the future.

On the issue of language development, the Department in conjunction with the Provincial Language Committee will tackle the challenge of finalising the Draft Provincial Language Policy. This will be done in close co-operation with the Education Department in order to deal with the issue of in-school language policy.

The Department also intends to renew its campaign to create awareness and educate the general public with specific focus on the Public Service regarding the importance and rights of deaf people through Sign Language.

Turning from local issues to matters of international contact;
Cultural exchange has always been important for the Department and is often where contact with other nations commences as part of the creation of the environment for economic and other strategic interaction.
In the past year we have, for example, hosted two dance troupes from India; will be sending an artist to Ethiopia and have established contacts with Belgium which I will expand upon later.

As our Premier mentioned in her State of the Province address, we are also sending 10 young people to our sister province of Hunan in China to develop Chinese language skills. This will assist the Province to benefit from the rapid growth in the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Africa. A Chinese dance group will participate in the heritage month activities in our Province, this year.

Turning to service delivery in the complex area of libraries, as reported last year the failure of the Department’s budget to grow at a rate equivalent to or above inflation has necessitated serious cutbacks.

We have put on hold firstly, our mobile book box library service, which was in actual fact funded through donor funding, and secondly, we have reduced our service points from 189 to 152, which sadly determines that the smallest communities in the province no longer enjoy access to educational and recreational reading material.

Whilst this situation is one that the Department would rather not face, there is a positive aspect to it. Rationalisation along these lines has already been piloted in Calvinia where the closing of the central library and the moving of its staff and stock to Calvinia West, where the library facility has been enlarged means that study spaces and collections are now available for learners and students; that there is now a children’s library and that there is a larger staff that is able to concentrate on specialised areas of user need.

The Library Service continues to provide professional guidance on library administration and management to the staff of community libraries ensuring that professional standards are maintained. In this same regard, Information Communication Technology or ICT services to 80 libraries have been monitored and managed through donor funding and the ICT service is used as a research tool to supplement the current lack of reference material in community libraries.

As the House is aware, for some years the library system nationwide has laboured under a Constitutional dilemma that determines that, municipalities technically have the challenge of sustaining these services to a satisfactory level.

Some municipalities in the province have availed funding despite challenges. They deserve specific mention:

* I have already commented on the Hantam Municipality which used its 2005 grant to ensure positive outcomes from the process of rationalisation
* NamaKhoi has created a new library in the outlying village of Bulletrap
* Magareng has renovated a library building
* Karoo-Hoogland is in the process of extending the study area of the Williston Library. and
* Gamagara has extended part of the library and will add a study area this year.

Madam Speaker,
I am confident that after many years, we are finally beginning to make progress on the constitutional issue of library service. In this year, our National Minister, Dr Pallo Jordan, has commissioned a study to look at options for its resolution. He has also secured R1 billion over the coming three year cycle for transformation of the library sector of which we will be a beneficiary and our staff are working with colleagues around the country to draft a Libraries Transformation Charter.

This will amongst other things commit libraries to the promotion of indigenous language material, for which a national book publishing strategy is also being developed as part of efforts to transform the publishing industry. Commemorative days have, as in past years played a key role in nation building and celebration of our nation’s heritage. Already in this year, we have been honoured to host the President at Freedom Day celebrations in the provincial capital and as I have mentioned these days have particular significance given the many important anniversaries that fall in this year.

However, these events create a huge workload on our staff and in many instances work in other critical areas ceases in the run-up to these events. The Department is hence investigating possibilities to fund the creation of an ‘Events Management Division’ that will be charged with organisation of these days and other significant occasions for which the Department is responsible. This is in line with the Department of Arts and Culture’s Event and Technical Services Indaba, held in September last year at the Gallagher Estate.

Staying with events, an important venue for arts events is the Northern Cape Theatre which received its last renovation utilising funds from the RDP programme in 1998. Unfortunately, as things inevitably go in the never-ending cycle of technological progress, coupled with the heavy use the Theatre has experienced since its last makeover, it once again requires major upgrading of its equipment and facilities.

In this regard, I am happy to say that the Northern Cape Arts & Culture Council has recently voted an amount of R1 million from its grant for this year and income in 2005 for the upgrading of the Northern Cape Theatre. Whilst a large part of this goes towards annual running costs of the facility, it will take us some way towards realising the sum needed to ensure that our province’s only theatre is once again able to attract the performances it so recently drew in plenty.

We are working closely with partners in the business community and the national Department of Arts & Culture to ensure that the remaining funds needed become available in the course of the year.

Last year, I mentioned the success of the Northern Cape Theatre Conservatoire that had two productions on the national circuit. This drama company, based at the Northern Cape Theatre, is currently rehearsing as part of the cast of the musical “Vlenter”, at the State Theatre in Tshwane. As it grows from strength to strength, it will need a better home facility and we look forward to the day when major productions such as this can not only come to, but be produced in Kimberley.

2005 saw the successful resumption of the ‘African Rendezvous Concert’ on Heritage Day. The culmination of a successful month of heritage related activity throughout the Province. Following on that success, a similar concert was held on 16 December, at Langleg and another at Die Eiland in Upington a day later.
We are confident that further development of opportunities to create income and find sponsors will further reduce costs to the Department.

Whilst such concerts are costly, it is often not understood what an important role they play besides providing a welcome opportunity for Northern Cape audiences to see our country’s best performers. Sharing of the bill provides local artists with an opportunity to perform alongside and interact with big names in the music industry and as regards audience development, the concerts create a culture of paying for performances, a very important aspect for the survival of local artists who need paying, local audiences if they are to survive.

In this year of the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s March, it is important to note the initiation of the “Mosadi Wa Kono Kono” programme by our Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms Ntombazana Botha, launched in December last year. Translating as “Women of Substance” its aim is to recognise the contribution of women in society with emphasis on their stabilising role through arts and culture. As we know, empowered women serve as visible and strong role models for youth and children inspiring and stimulate the younger generation.

Youth are currently involved in a competition to identify and profile a provincial ‘Woman of Substance’. The programme’s main objective is to use community arts centres to promote men and women who use the arts to create SMME’S which provide sustainable income generating opportunities for women.

From previous years, the House will be aware that the national Department of Arts and Culture has since 2001 supported initiatives in the crafts sector through its poverty alleviation programme, investing in Culture. I am very happy to announce that from this year the programme is being much expanded, not just in monetary terms, but also to other sectors of the creative industries which have not previous been funded in this way. Of the R100 million available nationally for this programme, R16 million has been allocated to projects in the Northern Cape.

In boosting sectors of the economy with special potential for faster growth, as is one of the objectives of AsgiSA, eleven projects in the crafts and film sector have already been funded and business plans for the remaining R8,5 million are currently in the process of being drafted. It is anticipated that the heritage sector will be brought into this programme in this way.

The local crafts industry will also benefit from efforts by our colleagues at national level to expand its support for export initiatives around the ‘Proudly South African’ branding.

I am excited to announce that a high quality African-centred exhibition for Arts and Culture is scheduled to take place in September 2006, within the confinement of a sustainable legacy for cultural industries, as outlined by the Northern Cape Heritage and Culture Consultative Conference held last year.

Honourable Members
A conceptual framework on the Arts and Culture Policy Summit will be submitted to the next Minister of Health and MECs for Health from the nine provinces (MINMEC), with a date in preparation for the Policy Summit tentatively scheduled for the 1 to 4 August this year. This process will produce a comprehensive report that covers, among others:
* challenges over the first decade of democracy
* policy gaps – or what the policy or legislative framework does not cover
* achievements over the first democracy and
* development of an Arts and Culture Plan for 2006 to 2016.

Coming to sport, the Northern Cape Sport Council is developing a Provincial Sport Charter. Derived from the national document it will address issues of women in sport as well as many others relevant to transformation of the sector, pulling together in a single policy the many processes of change that are already in place.

An important aspect of our identity as a province and nation is how we perform on the sport fields. In this regard our ‘High Performance Programme’ will establish quality district teams in many codes. This will better prepare us for major national and international tournaments.

Among us here today, we have Mr Johnson Mosikare who is currently studying towards a Masters Degree in Sport Science Management, in Cuba. School sports have long been an issue of concern to our department and in Education. A new coordinating committee, that involves our Department and Education, has now been established. One of the first programmes to be initiated is the ‘School Sport Mass Participation Programme’ which has been introduced to promote sport development in schools. This year, it will be piloted in 32 schools throughout the province with the necessary staff appointed to ensure success. A conditional grant of R1.2 million for this financial year is allocated for this purpose.
An outcome of last year’s Provincial Soccer Indaba is amongst other things a focus on implementing football courses in all five districts. Emphasis is on administration, coaching and referees courses with special attention being paid to women’s football.

Furthermore, as per Soccer Indaba resolutions, we have successfully hosted PSL matches in Kimberley, including a Coca-Cola Cup Semi-final game.

Now in its third year, the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme has received a massive increase in funding with a conditional grant of R5 million for the current financial year, which represents an increase of almost 90% from 2005/06. It can now be extended to all 27 local municipalities including the recently incorporated Moshaweng. District and Provincial Recreation Councils are being established to assist and evaluate the implementation of the programme. This programme will provide 156 jobs and targeted to reach 75 000 participants throughout the Northern Cape in this year.

In the course of this year indigenous games will be intensified in the province focusing on establishing formal clubs and municipal structures.

For the public servants present in the gallery, our Sport and Recreation Unit plans a new programme to promote team building, stress relief and a healthy lifestyle in the Public Service.

Madam Speaker,
In his budget speech last month, the National Minister of Sport and Recreation, Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile told Parliament, and I quote:
“South Africa’s preparations for 2010 have to be in synchrony with government plans for the betterment of the lives of our people. This is why we have opted for ten match studio instead of just eight. That is why we will also build or refurbish practice stadiums in smaller areas like Kimberley.” This, Honourable Members, I believe, is good news for the Northern Cape.

Our Provincial Archive Service continues to provide good service in the records management sector, training clerical staff and monitoring the handling of records and approving systems for filing in all spheres of provincial and local government.

The Minister of Arts & Culture has recently announced a series of new commitments to the heritage sector, including archives. The national archive is to undergo a R700 million refurbishment and we have already derived benefits from the experience his Department has gained in this respect through a visit of the National Archivist to the province and the promise of more technical support as our own search for an archive repository progresses.

This issue brings me to the final area on which I would like to dwell, that of infrastructure. The search for a suitable building for an Archive Repository and the funds to convert it has been long and frustrating, but we are currently busy in negotiations with National Archives to assist the province in conducting a feasibility study.

Our Department has long been involved with the creation of sport infrastructure in partnership with national and local government. I am however, concerned that from the current financial year we will no longer act as the channel for such funding which will now go through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, or MIG system. It is with regret that we notice that few municipalities are giving priority to applying for funding for sports facilities and this does not bode well for future expansion of projects like the Mass Participation Programme to areas where it cannot currently be implemented due to lack of facilities.

As many of you are aware, maintenance of museums infrastructure has also been a long-term problem for the Department. I am hence happy to announce that over the 2006/07 MTEF period an amount of R10,1 million has been ear-marked for the restoration of museum buildings. The R1 million ear-marked for the 2006/07 financial year will be utilised for the restoration of the interior of the Duggan-Cronin Gallery.

The Museum Service in conjunction with the Media, Advertising, Publishing, Printing and Packaging (MAPP) Sector Educational Training Authority (SETA) has already trained 14 young men and women in restoration techniques through a pilot project at the Rudd House Museum and several of these will along with others be undergoing advanced training in Belgium.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker,
The Department has over the past four years, undertaken the construction of the Mayibuye Centre in Galeshewe at a cost of R40 million. This project is in line with a nationally agreed initiative to ultimately establish an arts centre in every locality, and I am happy to announce that this state-of-the-art multipurpose centre for sport and the arts will open its doors in the latter part of 2006.

This culmination of our largest project since the creation of the Department in 1999, presents major opportunities for development of our artists and sports people and the centre promises to do much for the community, not just of Galeshewe, but the entire province, over the coming years.

Allow me Madam Speaker, an opportunity to thank the management and staff of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, for their continued efforts in delivering a quality service to the public. I also wish to thank the Premier, Cabinet colleagues, Members of the Provincial Legislature and the African National Congress, for your sincere support throughout.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, Northern Cape Provincial Government
13 June 2006