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15 May 2008

Honourable Premier
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable members of this august House
Honourable members of the executive council
Esteemed guests from our tertiary institutions
Leaders from the business fraternity
Leaders from the religious community
Our traditional leaders
Members of the statutory bodies
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen

The pivotal role and central task of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has always been to intensify service delivery, by aligning all our programmes to our constitutional mandates towards the realisation of the broad transformation agenda of our society.

We need to make sure that, at all times, we are responsive to the needs of our people which will therefore require of us to critically do introspection both of ourselves and of our role as a department by scrutinising all our available resources under the magnifying glass and to critically reflect on our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and to harness our collective efforts to champion the cause of our people and thereby achieve a better life for all in Limpopo.

Challenges will always present themselves, but all I can say is that I am confident that the department will rise to these challenges and will fast-track the process of building a caring and sharing society, in preparations for the ANC centenary celebration, earmarked for 2012. I am also confident that all the current challenges shall have been dealt with. The department places a high premium on the cultural heritage of our people. We are strategically placed to be in the forefront of the march on these emotive celebrations of immense historical significance and importance to our people.

Honourable speaker, I wish to put on record that, as politicians, we have a constitutional responsibility to ensure that those who implement and translate the policies of government into living realities, must be given all the support and opportunities to do so in a conducive and an enabling environment within the parameters of the Constitution and within such latitudes permitted by the legislative framework without fear, favour or prejudice.

The conducive and enabling environment alluded to will unleash the true potential and activate the real and genuine spirit of cadre-ship in each and every public official in the department, to perform their duties towards effecting better service delivery to the citizens of Limpopo, in line with and in pursuit of the objective of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

In line with the principle of declaring 2008 as the year of BUSINESS UNUSUAL IN EFFECTING AND ACCELERATING BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY, I wish to place on record before this august House, that the department has unconditionally committed itself to turning a new leaf, by committing itself to correcting the anomalies of yesterday; effecting a turn around strategy and making a better life for all a living reality. This turn around strategy has seen the department’s strategic plan aligned to our mandate, which is already having a ripple effect on the department.

Honourable speaker, the department has received an allocation of R186, 929 million. This in an increase of 16.01% as compared to the 2007/08 adjusted budget. The equitable share of the department increased by 2.08% from R111.590 million to R113.915 million. R77.986 million will be spent on compensation of employees. This amounts to 41.72% of the total budget. This amount includes R17.623 million for salaries for both the Library and Sport Mass Participation Programme Conditional Grants. Honourable speaker, it should also be noted that the department’s vacancy rate currently stands at 53%, which is 3% less than last year. This remains a challenge for the department and has a negative impact on service delivery.

R25.534 million or 13.66% of the total budget is earmarked for goods and services excluding the conditional grants, which amounts to R53.544 million. In total, therefore, the allocation for goods and services, including conditional grants, amounts to R79.080 million or 42.30% of the budget.

Furthermore, 1.08% will be spent on transfers and 14.90% on capital assets. Out of this total allocation, R48.635 million will be utilised towards administration. This constitutes 26.02% of the total budget.

1. Cultural Affairs

The programme of cultural affairs will be allocated R30.171 million. This will be divided into the sub-programmes of Museum and Heritage Services, Library and Archives Services, Arts and Culture and Translation Services.

Our most recent appointment of the General Manager in Cultural Affairs has assisted us in devising a new interventionist strategy, bearing in mind that such strategies must not only be genuinely directed towards the ultra-poor, but most importantly, it must be people-centred. However, at the same time, we cannot be lax in our approach, as our people need our firm resolve to turn ideals into living realities, here and now. Our pursuit of building a caring and sharing society, referred to earlier, will only come to fruition in an atmosphere where all of society has been mobilised to rally behind a common goal.

Museum and Heritage Services

It is not a coincidence therefore, that we call upon all our people, who have the political will and wisdom, to join the department in its endeavour to successfully complete the garden of remembrance project. The Schoemansdal museum site has already been identified as the site for this project. This financial year will see the drawing up of a master plan for the garden of remembrance. This sees the start of our tribute to our comrades the heroes and heroines and stalwarts of our struggle, who laid down their lives to enable us to be where we are today. To this effect, we call on our people to submit the names of those worthy of such a tribute, to our database.

The department has also made considerable progress to finalise the project of unveiling and celebrating the lives of the Warrior Kings of Limpopo. Very little work is outstanding in completing this project and I am confident that the department will successfully complete this project in the current financial year.

Honourable speaker, these projects will rewrite history. Future generations will one day indeed reflect with pride on these cornerstones and monuments that will bear testimony to their courage and bravery in the fight against racism and colonialism. Projects of this nature also have far reaching economic benefits for the communities in job creation, poverty alleviation and promoting tourism in areas where these monuments are located. I need not remind this House that a project of this magnitude underpins the growth and development strategy of our province.

We would, therefore, like to urge our municipalities to be the custodians of these projects and that they take responsibility for the safekeeping and proper maintenance of our monuments, which are of great historical significance to our people. I wish to commend the Greater Tubatse Municipality and the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality for having taken the initiative in this regard, in rising to the challenge in preserving our rich history.

We hope that their collaborative spirit and the enthusiasm with which they treasure our arts, culture and heritage sites will rub-off on the other municipalities. I commend them for the courage in leading by example and I am sure other municipalities will be excited in adding to the success of such projects in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

Honourable speaker, you will agree with me if I say that, thus far, our museums and heritage sites have not done justice to the history and culture of all the people of Limpopo. Indeed, we need to do much more as a province, since Limpopo has a lot to tell and teach the world, about a rich and diverse history. The department has, in the past financial year, promised to make some interventions in this regard.

To date, we have completed research on the Ga-Matlala history, the Mutle Heritage project in the Lepelle-Nkumpi municipality, the Seabakgwana Heritage and Tourism project, as well as the investigation and study of the Kransplaas Old Church Heritage project.

A total of R1.200 million was spent on Heritage month and Heritage day celebrations and activities. Delegates from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique attended Heritage day celebrations and flowing from this, an exhibition exchange with our neighbours, Zimbabwe, will take place on International Museum Day.

Further to this, the National Oral History Conference, which was hosted by the University of Limpopo, once again affirmed that we are a people and a province rich in cultural diversity. The department must therefore take the lead in putting in place initiatives aimed at social cohesion and nation building. This conference further mandated the department to spearhead a research project, to unravel the untold and undocumented history of our people. We are convinced that this research project will not only reveal who we really are, but will also point out the direction we should take in our efforts in building a caring society.

Museum and Heritage Services is allocated a total of R10.359 million. R1 million of this is directed towards the garden of remembrance project I have referred to earlier. Other projects include Heritage Day and Day of Reconciliation celebrations.

Arts and Culture

Honourable speaker, let this august forum take serious note that this project is of immense importance for the people of Limpopo, lest we forget what was said by the late Robert Nestar Marley – reggae music superstar and icon in his own right: “A person without knowledge of his past history is like a tree without roots.”

Mapungubwe Arts Festival has, in the past, brought with it enormous economic spin-offs for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), well-established businesses as well as to the masses of our people. It has become one of the greatest events on the social and arts calendar of Limpopo and the people of the province, the country and southern Africa as a whole are thirsty for more. It is our collective responsibility to make Mapungubwe Arts Festival work.

Honourable speaker, the Marula Festival continues to grow from strength to strength and has the potential to become another success story for our province. The main goal for the department, however, is ensuring that the cultural and historical value of marula is preserved for posterity and for other nations to learn from our culture. In the past financial year, R1.202 million was spent on Africa Day celebrations and a further R975 00 was utilised for Freedom Day celebrations.

It is a fact that arts and culture cannot be totally divorced from the daily lives of the citizens of Limpopo. We also recognise the technological advances in this field, all over the world and we therefore need to empower and equip our artists to meet the challenges in the ever-changing field of arts and culture. To this end, the department endeavours to create an enabling and conducive environment that will benefit all artists in the province. The department, together with all its strategic partners in the districts, has started with briefing sessions and workshops, so that we can begin to read from the same page and collectively produce a proudly Limpopo product, that will be both beneficial and marketable and be of special significance to all.

Honourable speaker, the province has an abundance of talent, as recently evident in the composition of the crew of Lebo M’s The Lion King. Yet, it is indeed very sad that in the whole of Limpopo, our province does not have a single theatre. We have the capacity to produce leaders in their field of expertise. We have a wealth of God-given talent that is taken away from us right under our noses to the rest of the country as well as the world. The production of The Lion King is just one glaring example.

We now call upon our municipalities, sister departments and the private sector, to come on board, so that we can strategically position our province for the benefits that go hand-in-hand with having a fully-fledged theatre and for us to retain our talents for the future benefit of the citizens of Limpopo not to mention the ongoing economic and tourism spin-offs associated with such a project.

The time has come for us to not only nurture such talent, but also to create the space for growing talent, so that future generations can be proud of their heritage. We have the opportunity to set the platform for effecting these changes. Last year, we promised this august house that the Limpopo Arts and Culture Council (LACC) will be revived. Here, once again, we have delivered on our promise with the reconstitution of the LACC and subsequent workshop to kick-start the activities of the council.

The department, together with sister departments and our colleagues in the municipalities, recently celebrated International Mother Tongue Day. We shall be happy if as Limpopo we were to transcend the barriers of language as a means of denying the people their democratic right and access to information.

Coupled with this project, we need to ensure that all indigenous languages get the prominence and attention they deserve in all government institutions as well as become reflective in all written material throughout the length and breadth of Limpopo. We want to acknowledge upfront that this is a mammoth task. However, our collaborative efforts with other institutions make us confident that we shall succeed. Limpopo will never be the same again.

Honourable speaker, when we collaboratively engage in an exercise of this magnitude and nature, we prove that we are on course to demonstrate that 2008 will indeed be a year where the principle of BUSINESS UNUSUAL in this regard, becomes a reality and that we truly mean business.

The department will, during this financial year, also embark on a programme of action to realise the resolutions of the ruling party Lekgotla, read together with the State of the Nation Address, to ensure that the project of renaming towns and streets is fast-tracked and completed within the framework of the rule of law, by effectively using the relevant legislation. Together with the geographical names committee, we are assisting municipalities to establish task teams that will facilitate the process of name changes. To date, three district municipalities have complied.

Honourable speaker, Arts and Culture, will receive R12.682 million towards projects including Freedom Day and Africa Day. The total budget for Cultural Affairs also includes transfer payments to the Statutory and Non-statutory bodies amounting to a total of R1.556 million and a further R1.099 million is allocated towards administration.

Library and Information Services

Honourable Speaker, the Congress of the People asserted that: “The doors of learning and culture shall be open for all.”
We realise now that we will never succeed in transforming society, if we continue to live in an environment where the majority of our people are unable to read and write.

The collaborative effort with the Department of Education will further accelerate the rate at which awareness is raised for the importance of reading. A reading nation is the basis of an informed and in turn a prosperous and winning nation. We would spare no effort in insisting that institutions and centres for learning and teaching join hands with all our municipalities in our campaign to foster, encourage and promote the culture of reading and learning at grassroots level.

I want to commend some of our municipalities for making reading a priority and encouraging learners from all schools to participate in reading projects. These initiatives can, at very minimal cost to the taxpayer, be implemented at every municipality. The department will, to this end, take the lead in making community libraries a true place of lifelong learning in the spirit of the principles of the Freedom Charter. I sincerely believe that if you empower a person with knowledge, you have succeeded in teaching a nation how to sustain itself. It all begins with promoting the culture of reading.

We are committed as a department, to giving value for money to all the citizens of Limpopo, in making our libraries true centres of learning. Our continued endeavour is therefore to ensure that libraries are well resourced and cabled, to enable users to take full advantage of e-technology and learning.

We are proud to announce that, in the past financial year, we have supplied 15 libraries with network cabling, which enables users to take advantage of a more sophisticated system of research. In this regard, the department spent R2.598 million on cabling, a further R1.018 million on materials, R3.011 million was spent on furniture and R596 000 on Information Communication and Technology (ICT) equipment. In the coming financial year, we hope to start with the construction of state of the art libraries in Fetakgomo and Thulamela Municipalities.

Another success story which I need to bring to the attention of this august House is the construction of the Provincial Archives building. The building is nearing completion and will be officially opened in the third quarter of this financial year. The total cost of for the erection of this building amounts to R39 million. It will surely distinguish Limpopo from the rest of the country.

Honourable speaker, a total of R61.794 million is allocated towards Library and Information Services. Of this total, Library Services receives R46.994 million and Archives receives R14.800 million, of which R10 million will be directed towards the completion of the archives building I alluded to earlier. This will bring the total cost of this building to R39 million.

Honourable speaker the total amount for Library and Information Services includes a Library Conditional Grant of R42.926 million from the National Department of Arts and Culture. This amount has been increased by 87% from the previous financial year to address the critical areas in Limpopo. It also includes a transfer payment to the Library Board, amounting to R98.000.

Sport and Recreation

Honourable Speaker, moving on to matters of sport and recreation. In the true spirit of participatory democracy, we engage strategic partners in order to facilitate an enabling environment for all athletes to participate in sport. It was indeed a difficult task to find each other. The road was sometimes uneven, but we reached our destination.

We are now convinced that we have finally struck the right chord for the growth and development of all sporting codes in Limpopo, where we create a prosperous and conducive environment to grow world champions. We will be understating the facts if we do not acknowledge that the real work done at grassroots level in sport and recreation is concentrated at District level. We will very soon engage all municipalities as well as the Sport and Recreation Councils, to review the status quo.

We are convinced that even with limited resources to our disposal at this level we can set the correct tone for success. We are aware that this move will, however, put pressure on municipalities to put up inclusive functional sport desks and to ensure that all sports facilities are open for the previously disadvantaged codes. However, we have a constitutional mandate to fast-track the process of taking all the games to their rightful owners, the communities. I can assure this House that nothing will stop us from achieving this objective.

Whilst our province boasts the best athletes in Sport for the Intellectually Impaired and the best national coach who is Limpopo born and bred we have never even seen these games taking place in our own backyard that is in the districts, municipalities and wards. The spirit of participation at all levels needs to be inculcated at the basic level of the wards in the districts.

Our officials in the municipalities and their respective councils will have to put their shoulders to the wheel and build a much firmer sports foundation. They will ensure, for instance, that the teams for the O.R Tambo games are a formidable force and also are ready to compete internationally.

We will also be vigorously engaging the sporting federations to ascertain if this state of affairs can deliver the desired product, as our understanding of transformation in sport is, that the previously disadvantaged and to be precise those in the rural and underprivileged areas need to have access to all sporting codes and the means with which to practice them.

We also wish to emphasise that sport and recreation is a catalyst for the promotion of national reconciliation, social cohesion, the fostering of pride and the national identity of our people. However, we lament the fact that we still have codes which are still excluding women, girls and persons with disabilities. We make an urgent call to all federations to speedily address this situation. One good example of all inclusiveness in sport that quickly comes to mind is softball in Limpopo. Also, despite the challenges they face, they still bring medals home. We are proud of them. They lead by example and I challenge others to copy from their success story. They indeed make Limpopo proud.

Honourable speaker, we further remain committed as a department, to the ideal of using Sport and Recreation to promote national interventionist programmes in the fight against HIV and Aids and crime and to promote good moral values in our society. It is therefore our duty to encourage the elderly ladies of Dopeni, Mafarana, Bughersdorp, Giyani, Lenyenye and Julesburg, to keep on playing those sporting codes. The benefits are enormous for them and their communities. The Department of Health and Social Development can best attest to the success of these initiatives.

The Academy of Sport has been doing very commendable work, despite of the minimal resources and staff compliment at its disposal. The department will review the status quo and adopt the best practices model that will ensure that our Sports Academy will deliver the best possible services to the citizens of the province. If we pool our resources together, we are convinced that our success rate will positively influence and arrest the migration of our sport stars out of the province.

To this end, the department calls upon the private sector, tertiary institutions, municipalities and all the relevant departments to pool their resources together in order to create a very appealing atmosphere and a conducive environment for our athletes to grow and remain in the province.

The Oasis Group of Lodges has already risen to the challenge with their pledge of continued support in sponsoring the Premier’s Sport Decoration Gala – an event which has in mind to honour those Limpopo born and bred athletes who fly the flag of the province in the international sports arena. This event also has in mind to encourage the youth our future sportsmen and women, to greater heights. We once again salute and thank Oasis Group for their support.

Honourable speaker, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo was handed the 2009 SA Games torch. The significance of this torch is a token of the appointment of the province as the official host of this event. This is an opportunity for Limpopo to test its readiness for 2010. The SA Games is not a small event by any measure, as all the provinces will be represented here. Our humble appeal is for all the departments to assist in and support this initiative so that, through our collective participation, we can further grow the economy of Limpopo.

This exercise will set the tone for success for the whole of Limpopo and I am confident that we will, through these games, once again boost the tourism industry in our province. We therefore wish to announce that the department has already taken on board its strategic partners at a workshop held in January 2008, where each and every stakeholder had its duty for this event outlined. We are convinced that besides hosting a successful SA Games in 2009, team Limpopo will collect most, if not all the medals on offer.

We must remember at all times, that we are formidable champions that can take on any challenge anywhere and at any time. For Limpopo, the 2009 SA Games is no exception to this rule. Cassius Baloyi, a boxer from this very province, has already shown this all-conquering spirit of our ancestor warrior kings and we salute him for hoisting our flag high as a province.

Honourable speaker, Sport and Recreation receives R46.329 of the total budget. The allocation is distributed amongst sport development, which receives R10.773 million and school sports, which is allocated a total of R34.657 million. The Mass Sport and Recreation Participation Programme Conditional Grant is the breeding ground of future champions. It is also a catalyst to create a healthy and active lifestyle among our communities.

The Mass Participation Programme Grant has been increased by 19% from the previous financial year, to R28.240 million. Last but not least, a total of R882.000 is earmarked as a transfer to the Limpopo Sports Academy.

To all our strategic partners, we wish to announce that we still have many laps to complete before we can reach the winning post, where we will strive to make our department shine. Let us, as a collaborative and for the sake of our people, use every available resource at our disposal, to create a vibrant and exciting environment for the promotion of sport, arts and culture in Limpopo in 2008.

Comrades, ladies and gentlemen, let me take this opportunity to thank the honourable members of the Portfolio Committee of Sport, Arts and Culture for walking the talk with us. The road was bumpy at times, but their invaluable contribution was highly appreciated and we wish to put before this honourable House our willingness and enthusiasm to be one with the committee in 2008 with the collective quest of bettering the lives of our people.

As our people have shown their full confidence in us, we need to reciprocate this trust, by re-affirming that we are on course in fulfilling our constitutional mandates to the citizens of Limpopo. By this token, we are called upon to go the extra mile in inspiring and uplifting every strata of our society, especially the weak and vulnerable. We need to act fast to remedy this situation.

We further remain disturbed that a province like Limpopo, with its rich cultural diversity and myriad of languages, can have tendencies of xenophobia and racism. We are comforted, however, that our statutory bodies are making efforts to deal with that, together with other chapter 9 institutions like the SA Human Rights Commission.

Honourable speaker, on a sad note the passing away of Umanji Nkuna demonstrated once again how vulnerable our artists in South Africa are. We simply cannot allow our artists to live and die in abject poverty. We once again remind them that bodies have been established to assist them to find common solutions to common problems. I’m referring to the likes of the Limpopo Artists Association (LIMA) and most recently Munghana Lunene FM.

In closure, Honourable speaker, we are confident that we can rise to the challenge of the New Year’s responsibilities with eager. The department is willing to continue down the path of improvement with its newly adopted turn-around strategy heading the course.

Honourable speaker this brings to mind the immortal words of William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar: “There is a tide in the affairs of man which, when taken in flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted all the voyages of their lives, is bound in shallows and miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat.”

The ancient Romans used to believe that swimming in a river or the ocean when the tide is high, would cure them of all their troubles and sorrows. They believed that the tide would literally wash away all evil and have them start afresh. The “tide” for the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture is high. In other words, a new year and new budget has been lain out before us to deliver our best. Let us therefore not sit and wait, but start moving with it immediately. There has never been a better time than now.

I thank you
Ndo livhuwa
Ke a leboga
Ndzi khensile
Shukran
Baie dankie

Issued by: Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, Limpopo Provincial Government
15 May 2008