DSAC 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan; with Minister

Sport, Arts and Culture

02 May 2023
Chairperson: Ms B Dlulane (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

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Sport, Arts & Culture

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Annual (DSAC) presented its 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan to the Portfolio Committee. The Department presented its core outputs for the financial year under review and budget allocation.  

The DSAC said its mandate was to provide leadership to the sport, arts, culture, and heritage sector to accelerate its transformation; provide an enabling policy, legislative and institutional framework; promote participation in sport and recreation, arts and culture, and heritage.

The court ruling on the South African Roadies Association (Sara) regarding a three-year obligation to fund operational and programming costs creates limitations to programme planning and the available budget.

In supporting education, skills, and health, the DSAC affirmed its commitment to upskilling and transforming the sector. It noted bursaries, placements, incubators, and other capacity building initiatives are central to this goal. 

Committee Members welcomed the DSAC initiative to start a programme for youth, but raised concerns about the delay in appointing a new Director-General and if the Department is making it a priority to advance the National Charter for Women and Sports South Africa. Members asked if the Department will ensure sports stakeholders strengthen gender diversity through its programmes and supports the sector to develop women's sport and bolster its ecosystem from a grassroots level to mainstream sports.

Meeting report

Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Annual (DSAC) 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan

Dr Cynthia Khumalo, Acting Director-General (ADG), Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), presented the Department’s Annual Performance Plan (APP) to the Portfolio Committee.

The presentation outlined the Department’s mandate, which includes:

  • Providing leadership to the Sport, Arts, Culture, and Heritage (SACH) sector to accelerate its transformation.
  • Providing an enabling policy, legislative, and institutional framework to the SACH sector.
  • Promoting participation in sport and recreation, arts and culture, and heritage.
  • Leading nation-building and social cohesion through social transformation.

Court Ruling on the case of the National Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and the South African Roadies Association (Sara)

The ruling indicated a three-year obligation to fund Sara’s operational and programming costs. The current ruling on the Sara matter is put forward by the Public Protector of South Africa (PPSA), dated June 2017. In this ruling, the PPSA outlined several remedial actions to be implemented by the Department. These were further made into an order of court by the High Court of South Africa on 22 August 2018, which instructed the Department to implement the Settlement Agreement of April 2014 between the Department and Sara. It obligated the Department to fund Sara’s proposals for renovations, operational, and programming costs. 

Social Cohesion

South African society is negatively driven by all the determinants required for social cohesion:

  • Racial diversity: The racial segregation caused by apartheid is well-documented.
  • Gender inequality persists and is one of the inequalities which cut across racial and income inequality, most likely contributing to the high levels of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa.
  • Economic inequality: The World Bank has found South Africa to be the most unequal regarding income inequality.

Capacity building

In supporting education, skills, and health, DSAC is committed to upskilling and transforming the sector. Bursaries, placements, incubators, and other capacity building initiatives are central to this. This area was stagnant during COVID but is recovering well as the programmes are implemented at full capacity again.

See presentation for further details.

Discussion

The Chairperson opened the meeting for discussion.

Mr T Mhlongo (DA) said the Committee welcomes the initiative to start a programme for the youth but said this was not enough. He wanted to know what more the Department could do for the youth. There was a birthday for Zola 7, and there was no problem with the Department celebrating any artist's birthday, but he wanted to know which programme the allocation for the budget was from and how much it cost.

He asked how the Department decided which artist’s birthday to celebrate and how it decided how much to spend; what the composition for the Infrastructure Committee was; how many there were; and how it was going to monitor and evaluate the programmes. He wanted to know how the new Minister thought the Eminent Person’s Group (EPG) Transformation report was working. It only focused on a few sporting codes and for the Department to address the imbalances of the past it must focus on all sporting codes.

There is a need to focus on not only six or seven sporting codes, but on all the sporting codes. This is concerning because the current system is not working with the so-called barometer being EPG.

He asked how the Minister would tell the Committee how far he is with appointing the Director-General, the internal controls, and compliance; why sports allocation was less than the allocation to heritage and arts. Sports is not taken seriously. He asked how the Department could convince the Committee this was not the case.

Mr M Zondi (ANC) said the budget was well balanced as far as he understood it. He asked what participation events specifically targeted rural sports development; if the Department planned to introduce this, because it was there before; if the Department could give the Committee an update concerning the court ruling; and asked for an update on the three-year obligation for the funding of Sara’s operational and programming costs.

He wanted to know the Department’s response regarding the court ruling, since the Acting DG said the Department had responded.

He also asked what progress was made with refurbishing community centres; which outdoor parks and play parks were being planned in rural communities and big open fields, particularly in rural and township areas.

He said he is concerned with the second programme in the area ‘Target versus Interest of Participants in School Sports’. The assumption might be a low participant number against the Department’s target of 5000 participants, which is concerning.

Ms V Malomane (ANC) asked if the Department was prioritising advancing the National Charter for Women and Sports South Africa. It had to ensure sports stakeholders strengthened gender in its programmes, supported the sector to develop women's sports, and strengthened its ecosystem from a grassroot level to a mainstream level.

In the post-COVID-19 period, it has been essential to prioritise health in every aspect of our lives, especially in sports.

Ms Malomane asked what transformation took place to ensure sports equipment and infrastructure were well taken care of and equipment was regularly cleaned and maintained.

She asked what the cost of participation events was per month, especially in the last financial year; and what the cost was in each of these events, per participant.

The Active Nations programme received 781.4 million of 50.5 percent of the total budget programme.

She asked how the Department can work better with the private sector, which is already and perhaps better suited to provide these programmes. The potential savings could be redirected to more pressing issues such as the implementation and support of the Infrastructure programme.

She asked what percentage will be set aside for the Administration of PEST 4 based on the project allocation, per agency.

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) asked for further explanation on the APP under ‘Human Resources’ on page 24 of the presentation, and the vacancy rate reflected as 20.11.

She asked for an explanation of pages 56 and 57 on the performance statistics of athletes and wanted to know if it was during the COVID period. Page 83 refers to GBB projects, and she asked what support is given to athletes who have been abused; what ‘Love Life’ has done in the past, because in past presentations to the Portfolio Committee, the Committee was not very impressed with this area and actually questioned the funding allocation and also the support for social change network. She asked if the Department could tell the Committee how these organisations communicated their work to the budget allocation it received. She saw ‘Love Life’ received R40 million but she did not pick up what the allocation for the other entity was.

Page 83 deals with safeguarding policy, and she asked who the stakeholders were, who the Department would be working with and when this process would start.

She asked how the athletes find the SILAPHA wellness programme and if it reaches all provinces; what money allocation it received; and how athletes in general benefited from this programme.

On page 86, the intentions of the Saartjie Baartman exhibition can be seen but she asked when it will be open or if it is already operational. On page 113, she asked what type of projects are being referred to. On Page 116, ‘Recreation, Development, and Sport Promotion’ was down by almost 1 200 000, and she asked why it was reduced.

On page 120, she asked about the heritage assets and also payment for capital assets. She asked the Department to explain the increase. On page 125 and 126, capital works on both slides are reflected as an allocation and she wanted to know why.

On page 129, regarding the Conditional Grant for Mass Participation and School Development Grant, she asked why the lowest grant is going to the Northern Cape, which is the biggest province.

Under ‘How is the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra funded’ she asked the Department to provide the Committee with an overview of the job opportunities created in its various programmes and projects; asked for an update on the ongoing investigations and the financial and service delivery implications this has for the Department.

Ms R Adams (ANC) said filling the vacancy of Director-General should be expedited to ensure leadership stability. It is encouraging to note the Department will continue enrolling unemployed graduates as interns against youth and targets, to have 50% female representation.

She asked about the success rate of attracting disabled youth to this internship programme. The Department said the target for people with disabilities depended on the applications received.

Government priorities are to improve economic transformation and job creation. She asked which interventions were made to increase economic participation for the historically disadvantaged for the presidential employment stimulus programme and other departmental programs.

She asked what support was given to improve the promotion of diverse creative industries and cultural diversity; and what impact the departmental programme would have for creative artists throughout the departments and which funds would be mobilised for various social partners.

Ms D Sibiya (ANC) asked why there was so much delay in signing the contract, despite numerous consultations. She asked what the foreseen implications from the Department were because of the delay. The buildings, other fixed structures, software, and other intangible assets for 2022 and 2023 had no figures projected, and she asked if it was because nothing had been done and could not be given.

Mr B Madlingozi (EFF) said the presentation looked good and promising on paper, but it did not reflect such to the poor black child on the streets of South Africa. Mr Nyathela (SARA) was never given a platform to voice his contradictory opinion about DSAC, together with National Arts Council and Public Protector, and this shows the non-transparency of these organisations and the imbalance present. He asked how there can be development in the sector which is overwhelmed by young black kids, when programmes initiated by Sara, which are aimed at creating educational and skill development for these young kids, are not supported by organisations which are supposed to inject monies to projects such as Sara is doing. When National Arts is declining funding for Sara, it creates schools which will empower kids to the knowledge of visual and sound development, the school the Department of Sports and Culture helped to create and rebuild.

He asked what the Department of Sports and Culture says about the decline. Sara is part of the solution the Department is talking about, including youth development. South Africa is following in the footprints of Europe by using terms of reference for creating creative ambassadors.

These creative ambassadors are not originally from South Africa, it is a European concept. He asked which policies within the Department of Sports and Culture these creative ambassadors were based on, and what criteria the Department used to appoint these ambassadors.

Mr D Joseph (DA) said slide 13 talked about people with disabilities, which is a national challenge as the Department has not been meeting the targets over the years, particularly at senior level, for women or disabled people. Slide 14 deals with why the Department only deals with 2018-2019 statistics and does not have more updated statistics to see how a cohesive society can be enhanced.

Speaking about Sara, he said the Department said in slide 20 the court settlement and all 2014 agreements were implemented, and all the obligations were met. In slides 27-28 dealing with ‘Jobs’, it was very encouraging to see the target of the 1 million jobs at six percent, but he asked if the jobs were direct or indirect; and what the affordability was to the community in the structure of the sports set out by the Department.

More community people need to be involved in the structure of sports, not only social sports where people are playing for entertainment, but talent must come through. In slide 40, the Minister and the Deputy Minister's salaries seem to be part of ‘Administration’.

He asked if the executive expenses are not supposed to be kept separate from the Department; if the Department can give more detail on the Nelson Mandela Sports Arts and Cultural Day; and also on the Andrew Mlangeni Golf Day; if the Department can brief the Committee on the technical management support to municipalities on the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funding again, just to update it regarding if there are any changes of previous municipalities mentioned.

Regarding Sarah Baartman, he knew of the joint committee between Public Works and the Department; what the planned cost was to complete this project and support the members in question when it finishes, if it was open, or when it will open, and what the timeframe of the project was. This was on slide 55.

On slide 76, Mr Joseph requested more information on the gazettes on geographical names and national symbols.

He asked how communities and organisations can be involved in identifying cultural heritage legacy programmes.

He appreciated the work the Robben Island Museum was doing but wanted more information on recognising the resistance and liberation heritage roots. Other families, like Afrikaner families and the Stuurman family, were on the island and were part of the resistance movement, which also needed to be heard of.

In slide 123, the ‘Goods and Services Indicators’ were at 10% but the colouring did not reflect a 10% on the slide. It appears one slide should reflect almost 50%.

On slide 126, dealing with the National Library in Cape Town, he asked if the roof had been fixed and if the 28 million was going to the National Library. He asked if it would include infrastructure repairs or if it is going to other uses.

Since the White Paper was going to be included, he asked if the Department budgeted for this. There needs to be another round of calling all relevant stakeholders so the Committee could emphasise the monitoring of the huge amounts which have been given to local government.

The Committee took an oversight visit to Robben Island as part of its oversight role. It was appalling to see the infrastructure, which the Department has a stake in, and the outstanding issues which were there. He asked how public works was now and if the Department was doing oversight. Arts, culture, promotion, and development were forecasting 3.17 million and there were decreases to more, or else three quarter of it. He asked why this budget planning for the programme increased extremely and if it would ultimately decrease towards 2022/23.

Minister’s Response

Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Zizi Kodwa, said that sports ambassadors were appointed at the Minister's discretion when he came into office. He realised the appointments were only on one side of the Department but there should have been ambassadors for creatives and ambassadors for goodwill, the same way there is for social advocates for social cohesion. These eminent South Africans played a very important role in sports and arts. These are known individuals who will amplify the policies and the vision of the Department on issues of nation building, and on issues of social cohesion. The Minister has already identified a few in the creative space who were in the sporting fraternity in the past. The budget given to the Department is not enough and it is a very delicate and difficult balance to make in a budget as small as the Department. Against this broad expected mandate and the challenges facing the Department at the moment, it has to locate the role of departments, Sports, Arts and Culture in the context of the society, and the country, and the nation.

The Minister said one of the discussions he had with the President was about what the defined role of the Department was, the expected role of the Department, and the budget. The cluster itself does not sit in the main bag, which is a ministerial budget committee that decides on budget allocation. This is quite unfortunate given the social cohesion and the national building the Department is at the centre of like a heartbeat. Unfortunately, it is not sitting at the high echelons deciding budget allocation.

Filling vacant posts, particularly of the DG, is at a very advanced stage and work has been done. The Department is waiting for a minute, which must come from the presidency. The Department has done enough work from a corporate service point of view. The advert should be out by the end of this week or this coming weekend.

On birthday parties, the Department does not organise birthdays, but it organises stakeholder engagement. The Department was an engagement of stakeholders and in this engagement of stakeholders, there was somebody who had a birthday, and the Minister joined to celebrate separately to or parallel to the meeting of stakeholders. There is no government department with an item called birthdays. In the same way, there is no government programme called creative ambassadors.

The Minister said EPGs are quite important, and their work should not be undermined. Earlier in the year, the focus was on targets and transformation. It was abused to the maximum and the Department decided to move away from quotas at the time because some of these quotas limited the potential and excellence of certain national groups. The scope of targets can be expanded. The Department will meet with SASCO soon because those voting codes or national federations meeting the targets must be punished to encourage it, and those doing well must be incentivised.

On the question on Robben Island, the Department has been getting a lot of reports on the state of some of its heritage sites, some of which are quite worrying. Next week as part of the budget vote programme, the Department will visit Robben Island. There are several proposals the Department has in mind regarding investment and sustainability of the heritage site, which is quite important in its liberation history. After the visit, the Department will tell the Committee what the Department thinks should be done.

Department Responses

Ms Mandisa Tshikwatamba, Deputy Director-General (DDG): Corporate Services, DSAC, replied on the question about disabilities and said the Department has 30 interns now. Only in 2021/22 did the Department have an intern with a disability but now there are none. The Department is trying to work with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, having realised this gap of people with disabilities, to see if it can assist.

There was a question on slide 24 related to the averages as at 1 April. This is the Department’s baseline when starting with the plan.  

Ms Sumayya Khan, DDG: Recreation Development and Sport Promotion, said the Department allocated 117 million, not billion, to the sports federations. It may look like a lot of money but it has to be spread across 60 sports federations. There is a financial and non-financial framework, and also an allocation regarding various categories of sports codes that the Department allocates the funding to.

Speaking on how women’s sports was monitored, she said some of it was very progressive. There are specific codes of sports for where the Department only allocates funding for women, which is rugby, cricket, and football. The Department started with football, where Banyana Banyana was given this allocation for women's football in general, but there was a specific allocation towards Banyana Banyana because it was doing so well, and the Department believed it needed to be professionalised.

The same has been given to the cricket women's team. Rugby, the same thing is happening. The Department has a framework where a service level agreement (SLA) is signed with it quarterly, it gives the Department reports. The Department attends its events so the Department can see what is happening at the events. The Department also attends its governance meetings and has one-on-one interactions with it.

Ms Khan said on the issue of school sport and the number of participants, the budget is very limited and many of the school sport interventions are through the conditional grant in the provinces. The participation in school sport championships, at a district level, exceeds targets. At the national level, the Department can only cater for 5000 schools because of the cost of running major national events.

Concerning the rural sports development programme raised by Mr Zondi: in the rural sports programme in the first year, the Department ran the programme in all the provinces looking at two traditional councils. It culminated in a national rural sports development festival. In the years which ensued, the Department believed it had to look at it at the provincial level so it spreads and got more traditional councils involved. The programme will still continue in the rural areas, but for this financial year, the focus is going to be rural sports development so the Department addresses the issues.

Ms Khan said the Department has now gazetted the draft policy for women in sport for public comments. There are dedicated codes of sport which focus only on funding for women's sport. There is also within the Federation support based on the transformation charter and dimensions. There is a focus on equity. The School Sport programme is highly focused on ensuring there are codes of sport for both girls and boys. More girls have been participating in the School Sport programme than boys.

Regarding the safeguarding policy, the Department put it deliberately into its own area of work. The initiative and efforts around GBV is in the departments.

Regarding the District Development programme, the Department’s APP articulates per programme, and Programme Two reflects where all of the mass participation programmes and Community Sports programmes will be rolled out, as well as where all the infrastructure programmes rolling out in the 2023/2024 year will be going forward.

Ms Khan said the Conditional Grant Allocation is normally done according to the equitable share. The Northern Cape gets the lowest funding among the provinces. When the Department does the allocations, as a baseline, each province gets 20 million rands. Thereafter, the equitable share proportions are applied to determine the remaining amount. In the case of the Northern Cape, the Department has even gone further and asked Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal to sacrifice two million rands from KZN and three million rands from Gauteng, which get the biggest allocation of the grant. The Northern Cape gets more Participation and Sports Development Grant than it would if the equitable share formula was applied.

Ms Khan replied on the issue of the Nelson Mandela Sports and Culture Day and said the Department affirms it is a Mandela Month initiative. The Department has sports events in the communities and does other activities like looking at sports infrastructure, cleaning up infrastructure, painting infrastructure, and providing equipment.

Mr Lebogang Mogoera, Chief Director: Infrastructure, DSAC, replied by saying all the programmes within the Department with any capital projects -which are Programmes Two to Programme Four are represented within the committee and are even inclusive of the heads of those specific programmes, namely the Deputy Directors-General (DDGs). The committee was, amongst others, established for the purpose of ensuring all the projects the Department has committed resources to are in line with the status quo of the project. The committee then monitors all the infrastructure quarterly, including those projects not directly implemented by the Department, but through other implementing agents, such as the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).

Regarding the progress the Department made as far as Sarah Baartman is concerned, the Department formalised the establishment of the Project Steering Committee, and what is different is the DSAC is expected to play an increased role, not only at an oversight level of the Project Steering Committee, but also the subcommittees supporting the Project Steering Committee. The Department also included the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as an implementing agent primarily because of issues of capacity. The project is planned to be completed in the period 2024/25 and an estimated amount of R97 million is needed to complete it.

Mr Mogoera said the committee, at some point, took a decision for ringfencing MIG, and DSAC should allocate the ringfenced portion outside the normal formula of MIG. It is a programme meant to continue as long as there is a need to build sports facilities in respective communities. The Department achieved the practical completion of the JL Dube facility, which means the facility is ready to function. Moving forward, there is the intention to include other assets or items to the facility, but this will be a completely new project.

On the National Library of South Africa, there is a bit of a dilemma; the roof is leaking because it is made of copper. It is a heritage building so the heritage advisor was consulted and said the Department should not get a new roof but fix the leaking roof with a different material.

Mr Mogoera replied regarding wastewater treatment issues, saying there is a project underway but it was a challenge. The Department converted what was supposed to be a maintenance project into a capital project, as well as the refurbishment of the houses. There are still problems, for example, the issue of a desalination plant, which is meant to ensure a sustainable water supply on the island, through the reverse osmosis process. The desalination plant is no longer functional because Public Works is not doing what it was supposed to do. Now it compromises the operational budget of DSAC, because it had to resort to other means of ensuring a sustainable water supply. With the issue of power supply, there is an electricity plant, a solar plant, and the batteries which were installed, however not all the units are functioning. This puts a lot of pressure on other alternatives and this is because of maintenance issues.

Mr Teboho Thebehae, Director: School of Sport, DSAC, said the Department has a mandate over and above community sports and school sports, which amounts to an obligation to implement recreation programmes. Those are currently not organised through federations, but the Department has partners the Department implements the programmes with. One partner is ‘Love Life’, which is allocated a portion and its mandate is expanded to cover certain elements of school sports because ‘Love Life’ would have facilities in rural areas where some federations are not able to function.

The same with ‘Sport for Social Network Change’, which has a network of members from civil society organisations. These are not necessarily recreation or sport-related organisations, but these are organisations which, to a greater extent, implement some of the recreation programmes in communities and are partnering with the Department.

Mr Thebehae said the Mass Participation grant covers various items or elements. It includes enabling an environment of provision of sports equipment, events, and general mass participation. These are all costs related to the organising and staging activities in communities. With events, for example, where a school sports event or district event has a target of 45 000 and the total allocation is 87 million, it comes to R546 rands per learner participating at district championships.

It is a bit slightly higher than at the local level because there are transportation costs and meals that have to be factored in when staging the district events.

Mr Simphiwe Mncube, DSAC, said while the Department has programmes it runs directly, which constitutes a sizeable number in disability and is above 2% of the required minimum average, the Department also works with specific organisations it provides support to, which cater solely for people with disabilities. The Department works with specific organisations and provides solely for people with disabilities such as SASSAII (sports association for the intellectually impaired), Association for the Physically Disabled (APD) which is an association for the physically disabled, and DevSport is an organisation the Department provides direct financial support to. The Department has also sought to assist the Special Olympics, although there is a need for SASAII and the Special Olympics to work together because it caters for the same target group. The Department also supports Tennis South Africa where a portion has wheelchair tennis.

Mr Irwin Langeveld, Director: Institutional Development, DSAC,  said the Saartjie Baartman Centre of Remembrance exhibition is expected to be completed by February 2024. The exhibition would be developed and installed by January 2024. The Department appointed an exhibition development and museum development company, and it has done research and the initial design of the exhibition. It also designed the concept for the exhibition and consulted quite extensively with the community and various groups related to the history of Sarah Baartman.

The Department anticipates the exhibition will be installed from 1 November to 16 January. Simultaneously, the appointment of the Council and initial staff will culminate in January 2024.

Mr Langeveld said on the recognition of the Stuurman family and other families on Robben Island, the Department participated in the strategic planning session led by the Robben Island Museum Council, where the Department emphasised the need for Robben Island to recognise other layers of the island's significance as a national monument, but also a world heritage site.

Regarding the layer of traditional leadership, the Department congratulated the island on the cleansing ceremony it had on 16 December as part of Reconciliation Day, where it had a cleansing ceremony recognising the traditional leadership layer of the significance of the island. It had the Korana as the main group participating in the ceremony led by the Ubaha (sp).

RIM said subsequently it is in the process of developing and signing a memorandum of understanding with the National House of Traditional and Khoisan leadership to collaborate on the recognition of the traditional leadership. Robben Island is launching the decision by the Council to declare 2023/24, the year of Robert Sobukwe, on the island.

The Department will be monitoring this very closely.

Mr Langeveld said the Department only implements the internship for heritage graduates in the current financial year. It is not in the APP yet but in the operational plan. The interns have already been placed at the heritage institutions and are being placed in the Department.

As the programme grows, the Department will elevate it into the APP, but it is at the initial stage right now. The Department is making plans with the South African Geographical Names Council on geographical names. It is also capacity building within provinces to assist provinces with consultation processes. It is led by the South African Geographical Names Council and is on track. The Department is confident it will be able to publish the three government gazettes as the Department’s annual target.

Mr Israel Mokgwamme, Chief Financial Officer, DSAC, said the internal control post has been advertised and is already closed. It is left for the panel to interview the candidates already in place.

The post will be filled very soon. There are about R7.5 million allocated to youth under bursaries. The emphasis is on women and persons with disabilities.

On the issue of PSP overall, there is about 5% being given to those implementing agencies and 4% to the project management officer who is running the funding. There is additional funding amounting to R42 million which comes from PSP.

On the budget structure of National Treasury, the Department said there must be a separation in Administration, and there must be a clear demonstration to say how much goes to ministries and how much goes to accounting officers’ budgets, which is within Corporate Services. So the budget for ministries reflects compensation of employees, goods and services and capital in the ministries. For example, travel costs come out of this sub-programme.

Mr Mokgwamme said about 10% of the Department budget goes to goods and services.

Dr Khumalo said there programmes specifically focusing on youth. On page 88 to 90 of the APP, links can be seen to the youth projects. For example, the ACPD section shows different programmes or interventions specifically targeting young people. Going forward, the Department will structure the APP presentation differently to demonstrate this. The artists in schools programme and community arts centres also targets youth and enhances employability.

On the issue of people with disabilities, Dr Khumalo highlighted the Weekend Arts Festival, which is a programme for artists with disabilities, targeting a total of 200 artists across the country, made up of a series of capacity building programmes with master classes.

Dr Khumalo said the Department held a meeting with the Public Protector about the High Court ruling on Sara, and said it fulfilled its obligations regarding implementation of the actions necessary, such as the renovation of the Sara building, which was completed and launched on the 17 February 2022, the Sara International Relations, the Sara Live Events Technical Production Conference, and supporting Sara's administration and operations. Sara also gave the Department a proposal seeking support for the Backstage Academy programmes. The Department signed a memorandum of agreement with Sara from 2022 to 2025. 

Regarding the National Lottery application by Mr Nyatela, Dr Khumalo said the Department has no authority to interfere with the processes undertaken by a different institute. The Department had a meeting with the National Lottery Foundation, the Chairperson, the Commissioner, and the Acting Chief Operating Officer, to discuss how all the stakeholders could work together to make the creative industry a success.

The actual intervention regarding PESP in the last financial year comes to 42 000 jobs created, and 48 000 jobs projected in the new financial year.  In the creative industry, the Department’s model is the Employment Multiplier Model which funds different organisations.

Dr Khumalo said the SILAPHA project was not established in 2022 but in the 2020/21 financial year. It has been running for three years and started off as a pilot project.

The service provider furnished 2 195 close-out reports in different formats through awareness programmes or through follow-ups.

Dr Khumalo confirmed funding for the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra comes from the National Arts Council, but there is not enough diversity in the cultural industry. The programmes the Department is targeting however, such as the debt fund aim to create an opportunity for diverse artists to work within the digital space.

On the issue of the inclusion of the revised White Paper, the MGE is important and included this year.

Mr Mhlongo raised the concern around the Love Life funding noting the Committee resolution on this. He suggested the National Lotteries Commission appear before the Committee.

The Chairperson clarified that no resolution was taken – impact can be seen in some areas. However, she took the point.

Ms Khan said Love Life was historically established through a Ford Foundation grant for a limited time. Government then continued funding the Love Life project through ringfenced funding. Love Life activities are aligned with the Department’s such as the school sports programmes, youth camps and job creation. An evaluation report can be shared. Love Life is a key strategic partner of the Department.

The Chairperson said she saw the good work of Love Life but the Committee would discuss it further.

She thanked the Department for presenting its budget although she was concerned by its small size.

The meeting was adjourned.

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