Report of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture on its activities undertaken during the 4th Parliament (May 2009 – March 2014), dated 12 March 2014

Key highlights

1. Reflection on Portfolio Committee programme for the term and on whether the objectives of such programmes were achieved

The Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture (the committee) provides oversight to the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) including Declared Cultural Institutions, Statutory Bodies, Constitutional Organisations and Non Profit Organisations that fall within the ambit of the DAC. Throughout the parliamentary term the committee’s activities involved oversight visits to entities located in the Western Cape (July 2011 and June 2012), Eastern Cape (August 2011), Free State (December 2011), Gauteng Limpopo and Northern Cape (March 2012), and KwaZulu-Natal (July 2012). The committee set itself an objective of accelerating oversight to the DAC and provide much required synergy between the work of the Department of Arts and Culture and ordinary citizens of South Africa. Through its programmes the Portfolio Committee managed to become a beacon of hope for ordinary citizens as it was inundated with letters, emails, telephone calls, faxes from people who were concerned about the work and programme of the Department and its entities. In a certain instances the Portfolio Committee intervened proactively to institution where there were serious allegations of maladministration and set up e standard of good governance. Of the critical concern to the Portfolio Committee was the issue of improving financial management within the Department of Arts and Culture and its entities. The Portfolio Committee took a stance that all entities should improve their financial controls and there should be consequences for compliance failure. During the 2012/13 financial year a number of institutions with clean audit increased while there was no disclaimer and only four institutions received unqualified audit opinion. Among these was the great achievement by Robben Island Museum. The Portfolio Committee worked in close partnership with the DAC and Council of Robben Island Museum to ensure that the institution is cleaned up and it focus on its key mandates.

2. Committee’s focus areas during the 4^th Parliament

The portfolio committee’s focus during this term was based on the following key areas:

-Scoping and overview of the Arts, Culture and Heritage;

-Grounding the work of the sector to ensure that communities participate and benefit optimally;

-Ensuring that financial compliance is improved and there are clear consequences for transgressors;

-Providing a closer oversight to institutions that regressed in their audit reports; and

-Development of enabling legislative environment that supports the sector.

3. Key areas for future work

3.1 Throughout the term of the Portfolio Committee it became apparent that the allocation of resources to the sector has not changed to address structural legacy of apartheid. The forthcoming Portfolio Committee would have to work closely with the department to ensure that additional resources are allocated to institutions whose programming serve the majority of South Africans.

3.2 The issue of infrastructural maintenance is posing a risk to business continuity of many institutions. In some cases the Department of Public Works has not provided much required services. Therefore it is crucial that the Portfolio Committees of Arts and Culture and Public Works need to find a way to address this issue.

4. Key challenges emerging

4.1 During each Portfolio Committee minutes are taken as an official record of the proceedings of the meeting. These minutes are required to be pre circulated for the forthcoming committee meeting and then tabled, adopted and signed by the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee. Throughout the term the Portfolio Committee has struggled to ensure that it adopt minutes of the previous meetings. In some cases minutes were adopted arbitrarily or adopted without been read carefully because of insufficient time allocate to minutes and internal committee operation.

4.2 Researchers often develop papers that are crucial in the understanding of the sector. However, these research papers seldom reach the portfolio committee as the committee is always inundated with scheduled meetings with external stakeholders.

4.3 Pre-briefing by the Content Advisor and Researcher- In certain instances as a team that supports the committee the researcher or content advisor develop documents that inform key areas concerning the forthcoming presentation to the Portfolio Committee. As these sometimes become technical in nature and more scientific, members of the portfolio committee do not get sufficient time to read through these documents as they are delivered to them on them a day before the meeting, mainly evenings.

5. Recommendations

5.1 It is recommended that minutes of the previous meeting be adopted at the beginning of each meeting of the Portfolio Committee.

5.2 Research outputs to be integrated into the portfolio committee work as it would enhance the committee’s understanding of the sector and result to a better oversight.

5.3 The portfolio committee to preface each meeting with a pre-briefing meeting which would provide with an opportunity to a researcher or a content advisor to brief members about key areas that require attention during the forthcoming meeting.

5.4 The DAC and a presenting entity to provide a presentation a week (seven days) in advance in order to allow enough time for the presentation to be processed by the committee staff.

1. Introduction

1.1 Department/s and Entities falling within the committee’s portfolio

a) Department of Arts and Culture

The Department of Arts and Culture aims to contribute to sustainable economic development, job creation and social cohesion though developing, preserving and promoting South African arts, culture and heritage nationally and internationally. It performs this task through the management of statutory bodies that support the sector (National Arts Council, National Heritage Council, National Film and Video Foundation, South African Heritage Resources Agency, etc) theatres (Artscape, Market Theatre, State Theatre, etc), museums (Iziko Museums, Ditsong Museum, Freedom Park, etc), library and heraldic services, and nongovernmental organisations.

The Department derives its legislative mandate from the following legislations:

- The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa,

- The Culture promotion Act,

- Cultural Institutions Act,

- South African Geographical Names Council Act,

- The Heraldry Act, etc

b) Entities:

No.	Name of Entity	Role of Entity	Location
1.	The Pan South African Language Board	The entity is responsible for the promotion and creation of conditions for, and development and use of all official South African languages as spelled out in section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.	Pretoria and all provinces
2.	The National Heritage Council of South Africa	In terms of the National Arts Council Act, 1997, the National Arts Council provides opportunities for people to practise and appreciate the arts. The Council also promotes the general application of the arts in the community, fosters the expression of a national identity by means of the arts, promotes freedom in practising the arts, and gives historically disadvantaged people greater access to the arts. Other functions include addressing historical imbalances by providing infrastructure and promoting national and international liaison.	Pretoria, Gauteng
3.	The South African Heritage Resources Agency	SAHRA coordinates the identification and management of the national estate in South Africa.	Cape Town, Western Cape
4.	The National Film and Video Foundation	The entity is tasked with the development, promotion and distribution of local film and video products.	Pretoria, Gauteng
5.	The National Arts Council of South Africa	The entity provides and encourages the provision of opportunities for persons to practise the arts. Furthermore, the entity provides strategic financial support to artist and arts organisations throughout South Africa.	Newtown, Gauteng
6.	The South African Library for the Blind	The entity provides a national library information service to serve the blind and print handicapped readers in South Africa.	Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
7.	Blind South Africa	Serve the interests of Blind citizens.	Johannesburg, Gauteng
8.	Business Arts South Africa	The entity raises funds to support artists.	Johannesburg, Gauteng
9.	The Market Theatre	The Market Theatre is responsible for the provision of performing arts and theatre show to the people of SA. It further provides the only state sponsored photography school and workshops on industrial theatre.	Newtown, Gauteng
10.	Windybrow Theatre	The entity provides performing arts and theatre production.	Hillbrow, Gauteng
11.	The Artscape	The entity provides performing arts and theatre production.	Cape Town, Western Cape
12.	The State Theatre	The entity provides performing arts and theatre production.	Pretoria, Gauteng
13.	The KwaZulu-Natal Playhouse	The entity provides performing arts and theatre production.	Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
14.	The Performing Arts Centre of the Free State	The entity provides performing arts and theatre production.	Bloemfontein, Free State
15.	Die Afrikaanse Taalmuseum	The entity is a museum dedicated to the conservation and promotion of Afrikaans language.	Paarl, Western Cape
16.	Ditsong Museums of South Africa	The entity is a flagship that comprises various declared cultural institutions in Pretoria and Johannesburg. These conserve, research, educate and exhibit cultural and biological heritage.	Pretoria & Johannesburg, Gauteng
17.	Engelenburg House Collection	The entity is a declared cultural institution	Pretoria, Gauteng
18.	Freedom Park	The entity is a declared cultural institution and researches, conserves, educates and exhibits cultural history of SA.	Pretoria, Gauteng
19.	Iziko Museums of South Africa	The entity is a flagship that comprises various declared cultural institutions in Cape Town. These displays, educated, conserve and researches cultural and biological heritage of SA.	Cape Town, Western Cape
20.	Luthuli Museum	The entity is a declared cultural institution. The museum educates, researches, exhibit and conserves the life of Chief Albert Luthuli, the first African to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.	KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal
21.	KwaZulu-Natal Museums	The entity is a declared cultural institution and displays, conserves and researches cultural and biological heritage.	Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal
22.	National Museum	The entity is a declared cultural institution and researches, conserves and displays natural heritage of SA.	Bloemfontein, Free State
23.	Nelson Mandela Museum	A museum dedicated to the life of Nelson Mandela.	Mthatha, Eastern Cape
24.	Robben Island Museum	Conserves, displays and educates about the heritage of Robben Island.	Cape Town, Western Cape
25.	The National English Museum Literacy Museum	A museum dedicated to the conservation of English language but deals with literary sector as part of transformation.	Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
26.	Msunduzi Museum	This is a museum that conserves, promotes, researches and exhibit social history of the people of KwaZulu-Natal. It has its origins to the Voortrekker/Church of the vow narrative.	Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal
27.	War Museum of the Boer Republics	This is a museum that conserves the history of the Anglo-Boer War and aspects of military history in South Africa.	Bloemfontein, Free State
28.	William Humphrey’s Art Gallery	William Humphrey’s is an Art Gallery. It provides a platform for visual artistic presentation and collects art works.	Kimberly, Northern Cape

1.2 Method of work of the committee (if committee adopted a particular method of work e.g. SCOPA.)

- The committee monitored the financial and non-financial performance of the Department and its entities to ensure that national objectives are met.

- The committee also processed and pass two legislations.

- It also facilitated public participation in Parliament relating to issues of oversight and legislation.

1.3 Purpose of the report

The purpose of this report is to provide an account of the work of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture work during the 4^th Parliament and to inform the members of the new Parliament about key outstanding issues pertaining to the oversight and legislative programme of the Department of Arts and Culture and its entities.

This report provides an overview of the activities the committee undertook during the 4^th Parliament, the outcome of key activities, as well as any challenges that emerged during the period under review and issues that should be considered for follow up during the 5^th Parliament. It summarises the key issues for follow-up and concludes with recommendations to strengthen operational and procedural processes to enhance the committee’s oversight and legislative roles in future.

2. Key statistics

The table below provides an overview of the number of meetings held, legislation and international agreements processed and the number of oversight trips and study tours undertaken by the committee, as well as any statutory appointments the committee made, during the 4^th Parliament:

Activity	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	Total
Meetings held	9	N/A	33	34	28	104
Legislation processed	0	0	1	0	1	2
Oversight trips undertaken	0	0	3	2	0	5
Study tours undertaken	0	0	0	0	0	0
International agreements processed	0	0	0	0	4	4
Statutory appointments made	0	0	1	0	2	3

3. Stakeholders:

None

4. Legislation and Public Hearings

The following pieces of legislation were referred to the committee and processed during the 4^th Parliament:

Year	Name of Legislation	Tagging	Objectives	Completed/Not Completed
2011/12	The South African Languages Bill [B23 -2011]	Sec 75	To regulate and monitor the use of official languages by national government departments.	Completed
2013/14	South African Language Practitioners Council Bill [B14-2013]	Sec 75	To provide for the establishment of the South African Language Practitioners’ Council; to provide for the objects, powers, duties and functions of the Council; to determine the manner in which the Council is to be managed, governed, staffed and financed; to regulate training of language practitioners; to provide for control of the accreditation and registration of language practitioners; and to provide for matters connected therewith	Completed

5. Oversight trips undertaken

The following oversight trips were undertaken:

Date	Area Visited	Objective	Status of Report
29-31 March 2011	Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Province	To ensure entities are carrying out legal mandates	Adopted
26-28 July 2011	Western Cape Province- Robben Island, Paarl and Cape Town CBD	To ensure that entities were carrying out their legal mandates i	Adopted
3-4 August 2011	Eastern Cape Province – Umtata and Grahams town	To ensure that entities were carrying out their legal mandates	Adopted
4-9 December 2011	Free State and Northern Cape Province	To ensure that entities were carrying out their legal mandates	Adopted
19-20 June 2012	Oversight to Darling and Clanwilliam , Western Cape Province	To understand the challenges that the Khoi and San people experience in terms of language and Arts	Adopted
31 July 2012 till 2 August 2012	Oversight visit to the KwaZulu- Natal Province	To ensure that entities were carrying out their legal mandates	Adopted

6. Study tours undertaken

The Portfolio Committee did not undertake any study tour during this term. It is crucial that the Portfolio Committee should conduct a study tour in order to benchmark the state of artistic service delivery in South Africa with other countries especially from other African countries in the East and West Africa.

7. International Agreements:

The Portfolio Committee processed the following international agreements:

Date referred	Name of International Agreement	Objective	Status of Report	Date of enforcement
14 August 2013	1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict.	To provide framework for the protection of cultural property in museums and any other heritage related sites in the event of armed conflict.	Adopted by the National Assembly	26 August 2013
14 August 2013	1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.	The convention provides framework for the prevention of illegal trafficking of stolen cultural objects.	Adopted by the National Assembly	26 August 2013
14 August 2013	2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.	The convention provides framework for the protection of underwater heritage in South Africa.	Adopted by the National Assembly	26 August 2013
14 August 2013	African Union Charter for African Cultural Renaissance.	It creates a platform for African countries to share cultural expertise and promotes values of cultural renaissance.	Adopted by the National Assembly	16 October 2013

a) Issues for follow-up

The 5^th Parliament should consider following up on the following concerns:

· The 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed provides systematic mechanisms to protect cultural items in the event of armed conflict. In the case of South Africa the Castle of Good Hope is both a military base as well as a museum site. This combination provides a threat to cultural items that are based at the Castle as they can be attacked during the time of war or military invasion. The Departments of Arts and Culture and Defence and Military Veterans should find a suitable solution to this matter that is in the best interests of cultural property.

8. Statutory appointments

The following statutory appointments were processes:

Date	Type of appointment	Period of appointment	Status of Report
07 August 2013	PanSALB	Five years	Adopted
18 October 2011	NCLIS	2 years	Adopted
06 November 2013	NCLIS	2 years	Adopted

9. Interventions

The Portfolio Committee’s intervention is mainly at an advisory level in instances where both the accounting and executive bodies are not perceived to be performing their functions optimally. The Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture intervened at PanSALB, SAHRA and Robben Island Museum. The level of intervention differed based on the proportion of the challenges institutions were facing. In the case of SAHRA the Committee’s intervention was to the extent that it recommended the termination of the employment of the then Chief Executive Officer. While Robben Island Museum’s intervention differed as the Committee worked closely with the Council and Senior Management to improve organisational and financial management within the organisation. PanSALB’s intervention was mainly statutory as the Committee found that the Board was the cause of institutional dysfunctionality and it recommend that the Board should be dissolved. Furthermore, it conducted interviews and related processes for the appointment of the new Board, as required by the law.

10. Recommendations

The following key issues should be taken into consideration by the 5^th parliament:

- The DAC to establish a flagship in the Free State/Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal;

- The DAC to develop a framework for the establishment and management of legacy projects;

- The DAC to develop a funding model that addresses historical imbalances;

- Engage the SABC concerning the development of the music policy that is bias towards local artists; and

- To develop a framework for the performance of the Moral Regeneration Movement.