Department of Arts & Culture Medium-Term Strategic Framework (Strategic Plan 2009-12)

Meeting report

Opening and welcome
The Chairperson conveyed the apologies of the Minister and the Deputy Minister who were both required to attend a meeting of the Cabinet. However, it was to be regretted that neither could be spared to present the views of the political leadership of the Department to the meeting. Members sought political accountability as well as administrative accountability. He did not excuse the political leadership’s absence but said that he had been informed only that morning that all Deputy Ministers must attend the Cabinet meeting.

He welcomed Mr T Wakashe, Director-General, and colleagues from the Department of Arts and Culture. Addressing Mr Wakashe, he said that the Committee had postponed two meetings at the Department’s request and would not entertain further postponements, for to do so would be a recipe for failure; he did not want to resort to ‘interdicts and summons’ in order to bring the Department to the Committee. Notwithstanding the absence of the political leadership, The Committee’s meeting had to proceed, because all committees had to finalise their five-year monitoring and oversight strategic plan.

He called upon Mr Wakashe and the Committee Secretary to work hard as a team to resolve the administrative challenges of finding mutually convenient dates. It was not for politicians to resolve those challenges. He believed that both Mr Wakashe and the Secretary had the capacity, the necessary qualifications and experience to resolve those technical administrative matters ‘for us to be able to do our job’. He assured them of Members’ support. ‘Next time we arrange a meeting, let the political leadership be here, at least one of them, preferably both of them'.

Welcoming Members, he noted that this was the Committee’s second meeting in the Fourth Parliament, and its purpose was to hear a detailed presentation on the Department's strategic objectives. Members were reminded that in their first meeting on 12 June 2009, the Department pointed out that because of time constraints they had not completed their work on their strategic objectives and that they would as soon as possible return to deliver that presentation. Therefore Members would expect not only the plan but also ‘some flesh on the bone’.

Welcoming guests, he hastened to say that it would be beneficial for Members and delegates to introduce themselves again, since this was only the second meeting. ‘It is important that we know one another.’ The Chairperson said that he had been ‘fully recycled’, having served as previously as a Member of Parliament, and thereafter as a member and thence speaker of the provincial legislature of Limpopo.

Department of Arts and Culture presentation
Mr Themba Wakashe said that he would focus on strategic issues, beginning with Programme 2: Arts and Culture in Society and the content of the Department’s work. He would not address the Department’s vision and mission, since he had dealt with those on 12 June 2009. However, he did recapitulate on the Department’s aims, most importantly to ensure social cohesion and nation-building, and asked for Members’ views as to whether what the Department was putting on the table was actually helping South Africa to achieve these aims.

On 29-30 October 2009 there would be a national conference in Durban at the convention centre on building a caring nation, and it was one of the Department’s attempts to deal with social cohesion. The Committee would be invited formally. The Patron was the President, and the Convener was the Minister of Arts and Culture.

The Department would welcome an opportunity to present to the Committee specifically on its achievements in promoting social cohesion and its approach to the conference.

The Programme sought to develop arts and culture in South Africa and mainstream its role in social development, a role that was commonly unappreciated both at provincial and national levels. He recalled the former deputy minister’s observation that the Department was regarded as the banqueting arm of government and expected to ask the artists to perform for free. That was indicative of the values that people associated with arts and culture. However, at the core or soul of any nation was cultural identity.

For the medium term strategic framework the Department was going to concentrate firstly on conducting a survey and developing a national strategy on choirs. The Department was doing this because it believed that there was not one community in the country that did not have a choir. The Department sought to use the choirs as agents of social cohesion. He envisaged that the choirs could serve as agents of social cohesion and nation-building in South Africa, and address some of the social ills of the country. If one believed that no community lacked a choir, then the Department could penetrate deeply into South Africa’s communities through church, community, and organisational choirs.

Secondly the Department was going to concentrate on the community arts centres. Although the Department was piloting 15 such centres, the Department sought to extend the community arts centres nationally. The arts centres had been a serious challenge to the Department, since it had tabled a framework that the Department would build the infrastructure while the provincial departments would maintain that infrastructure, and local government would ensure programming within the arts centres.

It was regrettable that the Department had provided the infrastructure but the others involved did not follow up. Since the community arts centres were not fully programmed, they were underused, and in some cases were vandalised. Together with the provinces, the Department was now working on a plan whereby it accepted that local government did not have enough funds. The Department would take over the programming. This would ensure after school activities and other programmes.

The Department would focus on training for arts and culture managers for community arts centres. Most of the people involved in the arts were artists not managers; moreover, there was hardly any arts administration and management education in the country. This issue was critical. Equally it was important not only in the performing arts sector but also in the museums sector, to recruit managerial staff of sufficient calibre. This was the case with Robben Island.

The Department would implement programmes aimed at emancipating marginalised women, children, and those living with disabilities through exhibitions of works of artists of a similar background.

The Department had completed its organisational development exercise. Since the Department’s separation from Science and Technology it had not conducted such an exercise. In the organisation development that the Department had completed, the issue of women had been elevated to a chief directorate to deal with empowerment and equity. It was not sufficient to leave the issue at the level of a problem, but it was necessary to raise the issue to a strategic, policy and legislative level.

Programme 3: the National Language Services sought to enhance the linguistic diversity of the country by establishing translation, editing and language units in government departments. One of the challenges was to overcome challenges of capacity and resources. At a special meeting of the Forum of South African Directors-General held on 11 August 2009 the Treasury had frankly admitted that Departments would have to review the bids that they had submitted and revise them; the chances of the Department’s receiving anything extra in the present financial year were remote. Only education had any possibility of receiving any extra funds.  
 
Three provinces, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape had approved language policies. Other provinces had not. Key to language policies in the medium term economic framework (MTEF) was the establishment of the National Centre for Human Language Technologies (HLT) which sought to infuse information technology (IT) into the official languages in order to unlock economic potential within the languages themselves, and upgrade facilities for the development of African languages to enable them to be used in fields such as banking, and to develop computer grammar and spelling checks in African languages. Such could help in the use of languages in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The issue of trade marks and intellectual policy emanated from this kind of work and was of interest. There was a view that a number of students did not want to study African languages because of a perception that a degree in African languages had little economic value. So one of the challenges in the medium term strategic framework was to examine how one can add value to the study of African languages in order to infuse economic value into such degrees.

The purpose of Programme 4: Cultural Development, International Co-operation and Investing in Culture was to improve economic and other developmental opportunities in South African culture through beneficial partnerships to ensure sustainability of the sector. A majority of people said that arts and culture was not sustainable. Mr Wakashe recalled that somebody close to him had asked him why he had wanted to study theatre and not theology on the basis that a theology degree guaranteed an audience (a congregation), a stage (a pulpit), and an income, whereas actors lacked all three. Many years later, Mr Wakashe and his erstwhile advisor became reconciled. Mr Wakashe raised this matter since so many people held the view that the arts and culture sector lacked commercial value. On the other hand, American television programmes showcased American culture and constituted an immense source of export earnings for the United States on the basis of a thriving industry. If one looked at cities like London and New York, one could see the role of theatre in promoting tourism. It was therefore right to transform South Africa’s creative industry sector. A recent United Nations survey had revealed that sub-Saharan African contributed only 0.02% to creative industries worldwide. Of this 0.02%, 0.01% might be contributed by South Africa. This meant that South African had not invested in creative industries as it should have done. In the medium term, one should examine investment in this sector. This required development of skills and training. South Africa was making some progress but not enough in relation to what remained to be done. For example, South Africa had produce academy award-winning films, but it was premature to consider South Africa to be a film-producing country. However, this was not to say that South Africa should not aim to be a producer of films.
 
Cultural agreements benefited South Africa, and contributed much in training and opportunities to artists to perform abroad. There were treaties with France and the United Kingdom for the co-production of films. There were also cultural agreements with a number of African countries. Even if no agreements existed, there were protocols. It was necessary to develop a SADC voice in arts and culture. This would help the countries in the region in their relations with UNESCO. Mr Wakashe had sought advice from colleagues in international relations. He had really underestimated that critically important area. He gave the example of the British Council and the Goethe Institute. One of the challenges was the lack of intellectual depth across the region and a lack of published research. Foreign scholars published books on southern African arts and culture and then we become jealous of their right to write about us. However, southern African scholars failed to write sufficiently about their own arts and culture. The Department was consulting the Human Sciences Research Council on this deficiency with a view to taking an active role.

Programme 5: Heritage Promotion for Socio-Economic Development viewed heritage as critical to issues of national identity and patriotism. One of the most vexing questions that South Africans faced was whether they had the capacity to use their heritage to build social cohesion and national identity. There was not enough sharing of heritages. This was important so that every South African could stand up and say that he or she was a protector of the national heritage. Otherwise differences would become further entrenched. One must not neglect the role of heritage in the development of development.

The Department had completed a skills audit in the heritage sector. There was a pattern of aging skills and non-replacement.

The Department was developing a strategy to digitise the heritage collections in its institutions to protect them from theft and to ensure the keeping of proper records. Secondly digitisation could enable the Department to reach a wide population. Unfortunately there were few teaching aids in arts and culture heritage. Mr Wakashe warned of a trend for international institutions to offer to digitise collections for South Africa and then register trademarks on the digitised products, after which, if South Africa wanted to use the digitised products it had to pay an exorbitant price. It was necessary to develop carefully a strategy for digitisation. The technology was evolving continuously. The Department was working on social histories of the host cities of 2010.

South Africa was leading the African continent in the preservation of world heritage sites, and was assisting in their conservation. The Department would welcome the opportunity to brief the Committee on the African World Heritage Fund, for which there were a number of sponsors. Egypt had contributed $1 million. Botswana and Senegal had also contributed. Africa had responded well, Mr Wakashe said.

Lastly, Programme 6: National Archives, Records, Libraries and Heraldic Service sought to promote national symbols. The Department was engaged in the MTEF in the building of community (public) libraries. He referred to a speech by the Minister on 11 August 2009. It was absolutely critical to invest in the brains of future South Africans, otherwise we would become a nation unable to think creatively and be challenged by the ugliness of poverty; it was vital to invest in education, otherwise South African would always be faced with the challenge of eliminating poverty. The Department believed that investment in libraries will help us down the line.

Mr Wakashe reviewed resource requirements per key departmental objective 2008/09 – 2010/11 and gave figures as per the slide. Since the Department would have to revise its projections on the MTEF expenditure trends on the basis of the latest information received from the Treasury, he omitted the slides giving financial details. The world recession’s impact was negative for everyone. One could not allow for duplication or wastage. It was necessary to become smarter on the use of resources. Beginning with the next cycle of Auditor-General’s reports, performance evaluations would be prioritised, and the Department would gear itself to greater accuracy in performance management.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked if the terms ‘head of department’ and ‘director-general’ were interchangeable. His usage indicated a preference for the former.

Mr Wakashe replied in the affirmative.

The Chairperson noted that Mr Wakashe’s usage of society and community was interchangeable

Mr Wakashe responded that the Department viewed communities as units of society. The Department emphasised arts and culture in community development.

Mr Maluleka asked about the relationship between the Department and the Department of Human Settlements.

Mr Wakashe responded that it was significant that Government had progressed from the concept of housing to the concept of human settlements. In its relations with Human Settlements, the Department had started from the premise that while building housing one was building communities. Previously housing had been provided but the element of communities had not been adequately addressed. This resulted in some housing developments becoming drug dens because human needs had not been catered for. Communities needed libraries and arts centres. That is quite important. When the mind was bored it looked to other activities to keep it busy.
 
Mr Maluleka said that this was important because it touched on the fight against crime. The important role of arts and culture was not sufficiently understood. He ventured to suggest that the South African Police Service (SAPS) would not need such a large budget if Arts and Culture could be given more resources to provide facilities that would divert vulnerable people from the road to crime.

Mr P Ntshiqela (COPE) said that he would have further questions to submit later in writing following a thorough perusal of the Medium Term Strategic Framework 1 April 2009 – 31 March 2012. He thought that the role of SADC, as alluded to by Mr Wakashe, was very important. Before he was elected to the National Assembly he had been active in civil society in which there had been sharing of information across the African continent. ‘The issue touched my heart’; he hoped that Members would take the matter further.

The Department responded that in March 2008 it had organised a regional conference from which only Zambia was absent. The headquarters of the African Academy of Languages was in Mali and mainly supported by UNESCO. The Conference sought to promote the cross-border languages and identified to such languages from the southern African region.

Mr Ntshiqela asked about the Durban conference in October. He urged the planners of the conference if possible to ensure that the platform would be open to civil society cultural groups as yet unrecognised, including beading groups. Space outside the conference venue would help them to raise their profile.

Mr G Lekgetho (ANC) appreciated the presentation. It was essential and a serious responsibility to promote arts and culture in the country. The Department’s organisational development must therefore function efficiently. He asked how many vacancies remained in the Department.

Mr Wakashe replied that the Department’s organisational development exercise gave the Department a clear picture of the Department’s needs in terms of capacity. Three months hence the Department would forward its findings to the Department of Public Service and Administration. Thereafter Members would see advertisements for positions vacant.

The Department responded in more detail on the vacancy rates. The Department had recently adopted a policy of advertising within six months of a post’s becoming vacant and filling such a post within 12 months. Responsible officials would have to report reasons for any delay. The Department’s human resources section would monitor the process closely. It was hard to retain staff because salaries elsewhere were often much higher. The provinces often hired archivists trained at by the Department. It was important for the Department to develop its staff retention policy. Counter offers were often only a temporary measure.

Mr Lekgetho said that on 11 August he had attended the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education in which he had learned that the Departments of Public Works and Transport trained many graduates. He asked how the Department was helping the community to invest in education through programmes like those offered by Public Works and Transport.

The Department responded that the Department had a bursary scheme with particular emphasis on education for scarce skills such as lexicography and translation.

Mr Lekgetho was impressed by the Department’s digitisation of heritage.

Mr Lekgetho asked when the Department would take over the programmes for the community arts centres so that they could function correctly.

Ms A Lotriet (DA), the DA spokesperson on Arts and Culture, asked about the extent to which the Department was involved in the running and staffing of the community arts centres.

Mr Wakashe gave details on activities for the art centres. Without efficient administration they would fail. An indication of progress was that one arts centre had sought the Department’s advice on devising a succession plan.

Ms Lotriet said that she shared the Department’s concern that students were not enrolling sufficiently to study for degrees in African languages. She said that South Africa would suffer unless it supported its languages. Economic value to students and multilingualism were linked.

The Department responded that since students were reluctant to enrol for African language courses the Department’s bursaries were a critical intervention. The Department had an internship programme across the various functions of the Department. Those who had qualified in languages might be absorbed by Arts and Culture, but could move to other departments or even the private sector after completing their internships. The Department added that recently it had held a national language forum attended by all the provinces. Language units and interest in the African languages were discussed.

The Chairperson said that it was necessary to promote multilingualism not only in theory but in practice.

Mr Lekgetho thanked the Department for providing clarity. He asked a follow up question on whether the advertising six weeks hence would address the vacancy rate of 38%.

The Department responded that the advertisements that it would place six weeks hence would be for the next intake of interns. With reference also to Ms Lotriet’s question, the Department was planning to recruit more interns. It was hoped to place 100 interns in the Department. Further information could be provided.

Mr Lekgetho asked when the Department would begin to fill its vacancies.

The Department responded that this would have to be part of the human resources plan still to be completed through the Department of Public Service and Administration. The plan would probably have an effect on the eventual number of vacancies that would exist. At the present time the Department was advertising a few vacancies. ‘It is a very long and thorough process that we have to go through as a government department. We are beefing up the recruitment section.’

The Chairperson asked if the Department was in the process of completing its organograrm and consulting the Department of Public Service and Administration, after which it would go ahead and advertise for applicants to fill the vacancies currently estimated at 38%.

Mr Wakashe replied in the affirmative.

The Department added that there was a need to distinguish current and longer-term vacancies. It was a decision of the Cabinet that vacancies in all government departments must be filled within six months of their arising. Currently, the Department was filling some vacancies that already existed. Secondly, there were vacancies filling of which was contingent on filling the superordinate post, for example, where there were acting deputy directors-general, the subordinate vacancies could be filled only when permanent deputy directors-general were appointed.

Mr Wakashe commended the Chairperson's grasp of the situation. The Department was now completing the organisational development exercise. The political principals had made their input. It would take three months for Department of Public Service and Administration completes its review. The Department was advertising some posts immediately, but the volume would increase after the organisational development exercise. Thereafter the Department could table a report on how its was filling those posts.

Conclusion
The Chairperson said that it was of critical importance to establish criteria by which progress in social cohesion and nation building could be measured. If promises regarding redress for exploited artists, referred to in the 12 June 2009 meeting, could be fulfilled, the Department would become ‘the darlings of the Committee’. Many artists were exploited because they did not know how to protect themselves when asked to sign documents.

He reminded all present of the different musical genres, notably African classical music which was often overlooked: categorisation would assist the budgeting process. It was necessary to define roles and responsibilities, not least to avoid legal actions. He looked forward to hearing from the Department’s associated institutions. He was happy and excited about the Department’s recognition of the need to train arts administrators and managers. Regarding the emancipation of women, departments would be compared and rated in their delivery levels: language was not enough.

Success in the promotion of linguistic diversity in literature, in translation, and in specialised technologies was crucial to a peaceful nation. One could not allow the provinces to countenance unconstitutional language programmes.

The President had achieved recognition for listening to the views of minority groups: the Committee must not be blind to such issues, and the Chairperson called upon Members to keep him informed of such views that they learned about in their constituencies. It was critical to act on the issue of traditional leaders, a matter that the Minister had said would ‘be taken on board’. He considered circumcision to be a good custom.

The role of the media was very powerful and influential, even among those who did not understand the spoken language of the media. He advised Members to watch the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)’s programme 90 Plein Street.

He commended the Department for its input, but said that it must quantify the delivery and time frames. Outreach to poor areas was vital. If one said that one needed to add economic value to arts and culture, one needed to establish what percentage arts and culture contributed to society. Arts and culture became a ‘hospital’ for people under stress and helped to heal wounds, and psychosomatic illnesses.

He asked to see the agreements with Scandinavian countries. The Committee was required not only to monitor the Department’s general work but also its interaction with other countries. There was a poverty of research on African issues, as had been repeated many times; also there was general neglect of African cultural issues. He appealed to Members to visit heritage sites and programmes. He called for a map of the distribution of libraries nationwide. Freedom Park was most important.

He emphasised the manifesto issues. The word ‘job’ was meaningless to the chronically unemployed. He was happy with emphasis on education and bursaries.

He called for more information on arts and culture legislation. Any transforming department that failed to introduce necessary legislation would automatically fail itself. The Department must introduce legislation for the sake of creating the demand. There were areas in which there was a need to amend and repeal. There were legislative gaps or lacunae that one needed to address.

He said that cultural villages, such as existed in Zambia and Swaziland, and even in a few places in South Africa, had high educational value and enlightened adults too.

He asked Mr Wakashe to complete his response, and for ‘any burning questions’ to be asked and answered briefly.

Mr Wakashe responded that he had held meetings with the musicians’ legal representatives with the objective that the Legal Resource Centre could provide a service to them. He had sought assistance on the issue of electronic property, with particular concern for a prominent South African musician whose works and trademark were owned by another party and to her detriment.

Mr Wakashe reminded the Committee of the power of the media, especially television. He therefore appealed to the Committee to please take an especial interest in the appointment of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)’s board. Content was important, but the board had not reflected arts and culture. The Department would return to the Committee with a map of the location and distribution of libraries nationwide. The Department had 11 pieces of pending legislation, consolidated into one bill, the Cultural Laws Amendment Bill, but because of time constraints it had been postponed to the current term. The Bill was ready.

Mr Ntshiqela asked to whom Mr Wakashe had referred in his remarks on the Durban conference.

Mr Wakashe replied that he had referred to the Committee.

The Chairperson asked Mr Ntshiqela to advise him on the correct pronunciation of his name. He said that the Constitution allowed one to pronounce someone’s name even if one could not do so perfectly, provided that one did thereby change the name’s meaning offensively.

Mr Ntshiqela responded.

Mr Wakashe said that the Department would circulate documents concerning the October conference and distribute them to Members via the Chairperson’s office.

The Chairperson advised that Parliament currently had only limited resources for Members’ travel. He himself regrettably had failed, because of such limitations, to attend a MinMEC meeting at which he could have heard the views of all provinces.

The Chairperson asked Ms Lotriet for impromptu closing remarks.

Mrs Lotriet thanked the Chairperson for his insightful overview, the members of the Department for enlightening the Committee, and the Members for their valuable responses. She looked forward to a progress report in the Committee’s next meeting.

The Chairperson asked if there were any administrative announcements.

There were none.

The meeting was adjourned.