Department of Arts and Culture on its activities in the 2010 FIFA World Cup :briefing

Meeting report

Presentation by the Minister and the Department of Arts and Culture
The Hon. Ms Lulu Xingwana, Minister of Arts and Culture, began the presentation by introducing the delegates from the Department of Arts and Culture and assuring the Committee that the Department would follow up all the points that the Committee raised.

Mr Themba Wakashe, Director-General, Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), explained that the Department’s presentation would provide firstly a general overview of the Department’s participation in programmes for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Department’s own programmes that it had funded as part of its participation in the World Cup. The national programmes included the Fly the Flag for Football programme, which the Department was co-ordinating and which was helping with the popularisation of the nation’s symbols. In this programme the Department had partnered with the International Marketing Council on the 40 day Countdown Campaign in which the Department had contributed to the total budget of the Campaign. The Department had also funded radio advertising in which 400 spots would be activated in shopping malls, taxi ranks and in areas of high traffic. The Department had also contributed financially and with flags and artists who would be performing on the road show. The aim of the Campaign was to educate people about the protocols of the flag and the National Anthem.

The Celebrate Africa programmes were also co-ordinated by the Department. The programmes included Africa Day. Africa Day would be Saturday 29 May 2010 and a celebration would be held at Dries Niemandt Park, also known as the Welcome Village, at Ekurhuleni, where musicians from five African Qualifying Countries (AQCs) would perform with South African artists and indigenous dance groups would render dynamic line-ups to build unity in the African continent.

On that day the Department would also facilitate radio debates. The day’s event would be completed with an evening dinner at the Sandton Convention Centre organised by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation at which President Zuma, members of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) would be present. The Department’s programme included programmes organised by the Department’s institutions such as theatres. This event would be televised live by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC 2) from 20h00 until 22h30 and would be an official launch of the 2010 World Cup.

Members raised concerns about the concert scheduled for 10 June 2010 and these were answered by the Minister, who clarified that the concert was organised by FIFA and Sony: the Department had no part in organising the concert and was not involved in any way.  

The second Celebrate Africa programme was Africa Awake: African Villages. This would consist of an exhibition at the Welcome Centre in Ekurhululeni. The Department would also be profiled in this exhibition. Five AQCs that were invited to perform on the Africa Day would also participate by exhibiting their best cultural products. This exhibition would run for the duration of the tournament. The Department would support the marketing and publicity around the venue and it joined the Ekurhululeni Metro in mobilising people to visit the venue.

The Department had worked on renovating and refurbishing Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) as it had partnered with the arts and culture industry to establish an environment for the creation of wealth. The Department was still collecting information from the provinces about PVAs. Each district in the country would have one PVA and provinces and their municipalities were responsible for putting up structures and providing basic cultural programmes. Most PVAs would screen a minimum of eight matches including all the Bafana matches, the semi final and the final. The Department had published a tour guide which was going to show and inform tourists about South African tourist attractions during the World Cup. Lastly FIFA official programmes were set in place which involved the opening and closing ceremonies.

MY2010 School Adventure was one of the national programmes created to popularise the 2010 World Cup.  9 000 schools had registered to be part of this campaign. The Department engaged in this programme in partnership with the Departments of Basic Education and Sports and Recreation and the Local Organising Committee and there was sponsorship by Adidas. In this project there was also a competition whereby schools had to design posters and produce items of visual and performing art.  

In the Department’s own programmes a Tournament Guide had been created to profile the Department and give a brief view of the museums and theatres. Heritage sites and world heritage sites were also profiled in this Guide. Distribution channels like, airports, hotels, bus and railway stations would be ready by 01 June 2010. A Football Friday Fashion Funk was a competition programme that was to challenge fashion design students to use the flag and Bafana Bafana kit as inspiration to design a clothing item. The finals of the completion would be held at the Fashion Capital in downtown Jozi [Johannesburg] and winners stood a chance to win R20 000 in Edgars vouchers and appear in a double page spread in the Cosmopolitan magazine.

The Minister had appointed a task team to review proposals submitted by the provinces, Host Cities, cultural Institutions and members of the general public. 41 projects had been selected. It had been recommended that these projects be funded by the Department. The Department had managed to secure R59 million for 21 projects. R127 million had been set aside from the Capital Expenditure Budget to fund 29 infrastructure development projects. These were called Legacy Projects and would be funded for three years.

The Department had contributed R40 Million to productions for the World Cup Opening and Closing Ceremonies. R5 million had been contributed by the Department to the successful FIFA Confederations Cup opening and closing ceremonies. The Department had also hosted FIFA Final Draw Cultural Programme which was also a success. These events were symbols of the state’s readiness for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Discussion
Mr H Maluleka (ANC) informed the Minister that he was happy that Windybrow Theatre had been upgraded and wanted to know why the Old Synagogue and Capital Theatre were not in the list of projects that were upgraded.

The Minister assured Mr Maluleka that both would be added to the list.

Ms J Tshivhase (ANC) thanked the Department for its exceptional preparations for the World Cup. She wanted clarity as to why the Venda Arts and Culture and Thohoyandou Centres were also not mentioned as included in the projects. She asked concerning distribution of the Tourist Guide. She also wanted to know what measures were put in place to guard against vandalism.

The Minister informed the Committee that the Department would have to look at what was left in its budget and see what it could do with theatres that were not in the list. She assured the Members that the projects that were not funded this year would be funded in the next year’s budget. The Department would also try and train people who could open and use the Thohoyandou Centre.  

Ms Duduzile Mazibuko, Chief Director, 2010 FIFA World Cup Project Manager, DAC, clarified that every distribution point had a supervisor who ensured that distribution was properly done and took action if there were any problems arising.

Prof A Lotriet (DA) wanted to know if the Department had a structure that would make it work closely with the different municipalities in order to facilitate the upgrading of the historical buildings.

The Minister stated that they had been working with the Members of the Executive Councils (MECs) and municipalities in considering which institutions needed to be refurbished.

Ms M Nxumalo (ANC) congratulated the Minister on the National Anthem campaign and for involving South African artists in teaching the nation its National Anthem.

The Minister urged the Members, in view of their responsibilities as Members of Parliament, to encourage constituents to learn the National Anthem and how to respect and take pride in their country.

Prof Lotriet wanted to know if all the official languages were taken into account in order to promote peace and stability in the country.

The Minister assured the Committee that no races, languages or cultures were neglected.

Ms E Nyalungu (ANC) wanted to know if there were cultural activities organised next to the stadiums.

The Minister explained that FIFA and its partners played a major role in the stadiums and in certain parameters outside the stadiums. On the other hand the Department was involved in PVAs and with tournament guides. The Department and FIFA were co-partners in the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Chairperson said that the were people that were arrested whose aim was to disrupt the World Cup and wanted to know what were the security measures taken to secure the safety of the artists and the public in general and to control the rumours about human trafficking and sex workers coming from around the world. 

The Minister explained to the Committee that security and safety was the duty of the Department of Police. She also informed the Members that a huge number of police would be deployed in various hosting provinces, stadiums and where there were international delegates. In the case of human trafficking, children were being taught how to react towards strangers.

Other Matters
Adoption of outstanding minutes dated 21 April 2010
Mr Maluleka was very unhappy and voiced that he was tired of doing corrections more than once in one set of minutes. He said he was under the impression that minutes were adopted with amendments after their first amendment.

Ms M Nxumalo suggested that the Management Committee should peruse the minutes after they were compiled by the Committee Secretary.

The Chairperson also raised his concern about the Secretary’s performance. He also believed that the Secretary was not reporting the views of Members sufficiently. He explained that it was not the Management’s Committee’s job to write and correct minutes.

The minutes were not adopted.

Adoption of outstanding minutes dated 5 May 2010
Mr Maluleka advised the Committee Secretary on what to write or leave in the minutes as they became a public document after adoption. He also suggested that when a Committee Member arrived late or left early in the meeting it must be recorded under attendance and the Secretary must write the reasons in brackets. Under apologies the Secretary must write the names of Members who were absent but had sent their apologies. Mr Maluleka also stated that the Secretary must be consistent when referring to people. For example, he could not use the title and name of the person separately.

The Chairperson emphasised that one of the duties of the Committee Secretary was to capture the core and the meaning of what was said in the meeting, write and edit the minutes.

All the minutes were sent back to the Secretary for him to record all the amendments that were made during the meeting and were not adopted.

Oversight Visits
The Chairperson suggested that the Committee should not be limited only to recommendations made by Department but had also to look at other projects that could be visited. He also reminded the Committee that the Department had promised to send the Committee a list of projects that the Department had funded.

Ms Nxumalo suggested that Members identify provinces they were going to visit first and thereafter identify institutions in those provinces.

The Committee agreed to make oversight visits in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province and to make a second round of oversight visits to the remaining five provinces. They also agreed that their oversight visits had to be made to institutions that had already been upgraded.

The Chairperson suggested that they had to make an oversight visit proposal immediately when they received the list, so that they could submit it before Friday 14 May 2010.

Letter from the Mount Nelson Hotel
The Chairperson informed the Committee that he had received a letter from the Mount Nelson Hotel apologising for a miscommunication between the Committee and Harvey World Travel concerning the Committee’s booking for a venue for its recent workshop. The Hotel had accepted responsibility and assured the Committee that such miscommunication would never happen again.

The meeting was adjourned.