Question NW2440 to the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture
13 December 2021 - NW2440
Mhlongo, Mr TW to ask the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture
(1) What (A) are the reasons that he is purportedly pushing ahead with the Resistance and Liberation Museum in the Eastern Cape as the proposed construction would merely be a duplication of Freedom Park, which was built for this very purpose and has yet to fulfil its purpose and mandate and is struggling to survive, (B) is the budget allocation for this project and (C) is the purpose and rationale as we already have numerous sites of liberation that honour the struggle, which receive either minimal or no financial support from the Government, like the Apartheid Museum which closed its doors and Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia; (2) whether he has found that concerns that have been expressed by segments of the professional community that the construction of the museum is not viable or feasible is correct; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, how will it be made feasible; (3) whether he has found that this is wasteful and fruitless expenditure, which could be put to more productive and efficient use in supporting the sector in its totality; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. (a) There is no construction of a Resistance and Liberation Museum in the Eastern Cape.
b) When Cabinet approved the implementation of the recommendations of the feasibility study to establish a Resistance and Liberation Movement Museum called for by the Inter-Ministerial Committee, the purpose and rationale was that there is no museum expressing the horror of colonialism and apartheid without sanitization. The feasibility study acknowledged the existence of museums on the liberation struggle but these museums deal with specific aspects of the liberation struggle and do not depict the liberation struggle in an unsanitised manner so that current and future generations have a full understanding of the price paid for a democratic dispensation. Cabinet approved that this museum be developed in Tshwane.
2. The feasibility study to establish a Resistance and Liberation Movement Museum called for by the Inter-Ministerial Committee and approved by Cabinet, found that the establishment of such a museum was viable and feasible.