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Date : 29/06/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: B Creecy: Gauteng Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005


ADDRESS BY MEC BARBARA CREECY, ON THE TABLING OF THE SPORT, RECREATION, ARTS AND CULTURE DEPARTMENT'S BUDGET VOTE, Gauteng Legislature, 29 June 2004

Honourable Speaker
Honourable Premier Mbhazima Shilowa
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Comrades and Colleagues

It is a privilege for me to present to this House the Budget Vote for the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture. The Budget that we are presenting today is the first of a five-year term. In this sense, it presents us with both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities to take forward the vision presented by the Premier in his opening address three weeks ago. Challenges to reshape existing programmes to new provincial priorities. In addressing these challenges, we must allow the current budget cycle to run its course while at the same time placing economic growth, job creation, fighting poverty, and building secure and sustainable communities at the centre of all we do.

Our task is made both easier and more difficult by the fact that sport, recreation, art and culture are for the most part conceptualised, financed and delivered by a range of organisations, associations, clubs, federations, voluntary associations and disciplines outside of government in that realm we call civil society.

In the Ten Year Synthesis Report on implementation of government programmes, the Policy Coordination and Advisory Services of the Presidency noted that while great strides had been made in the area of social delivery, weaknesses exist in those areas that are least dependent on direct government action. To overcome these weaknesses, the report continues, government needs to provide focus and clear leadership to promote faster economic growth and job creation, more efficient provision of quality services, increased social cohesion and reduction of the paradigm of exclusion prevalent among sections of society.

In layperson's terms, this means we must focus efforts on mobilising public, private and civil society partnerships to increase the share that sports, arts and culture make to our gross domestic product in this province. We need initiatives that allow players, artists and crafters to make sustainable livelihoods. We want to work with local government, the Gauteng Tourism Authority and other role players to ensure that sport, art, culture and heritage play their rightful role in attracting visitors to the province.

Gauteng as the home of competitive sport

Recent achievements such as winning the 2010 World Cup bid and the opportunity to host the Vodacom challenge on the 17 July are the first steps in realising our vision to make Gauteng a preferred home of competitive sport. In this regard, the Premier has clearly outlined the discussions underway with a range of clubs to motivate them to hold their home games in Gauteng. During the course of this budget year, our department will be building on initial studies conducted by the Premier's office indicating some of the obstacles to hosting home games. Issues such as night lighting for stadiums, parking and traffic congestion are some of the issues that have surfaced in these preliminary studies. Discussions will be held with local government and the Department of Public Works to identify upgrading projects that can alleviate these problems in the forthcoming budget cycle.

In this regard, I am happy to announce that the following international events will be taking place during this year in our province: the Rugby test between South Africa & Ireland in June, the Rugby Test between South Africa and New Zealand in August, Banyana-Banyana will be hosting the Woman's African Nations Cup in August, the National Olympic Team will be sent off by the Joburg City in August and a range of International Boxing Bouts will be hosted by the Joburg City throughout the year.

Further discussions are underway with a range of event organisers to identify ways in which the Gauteng Provincial Government can partner them in ensuring their events grow from strength to strength. The 702 Walk the Talk, the 94.7 Cycle Challenge, and the City to City Marathon are amongst the events we hope to grow this year and next.

Developing young talent

Central to the challenge of building Gauteng, as a preferred home of competitive sport, is the contribution this government makes to the development of young athletes. This year, the department has allocated R4, 9 million to assist young athletes wishing to participate in events such as the All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games.

To date, a total of 472 athletes have been part of the programmes of which 35 participated at national and international level, with three of them achieving medals at international level. Currently the following sporting codes are part of the programme: rugby, cricket, swimming, athletics, netball, boxing and women's football.

In the course of this year, we will be evaluating the current programmes to assess both its impact in developing young talent and its role in relation to national initiatives to develop high performance athletes. In this regard, we will have to consider greater focus in government's role in the context of the substantial resources and the expertise clubs and federations put into talent development and identification.

In this regard, it is important to mention two significant initiatives that have been launched by the private sector over the past two months. The first is the Kay Motsepe Cup, launched at Orlando Stadium in May this year and the second is the Shoprite Checkers under 13 schools Netball Challenge launched in Witkoppen also in May.

The Kay Motsepe Cup is a national football tournament for high school learners in the open age category. This cup was initiated by the Premier of Gauteng and is sponsored by the Motsepe Foundation to the tune of R10 million rand over six years.

The vision of the programme is to unearth latent football talent across the country and at least one player from the programme to play in the 2010 Bafana-Bafana Squad.

The Shoprite Checkers u/13 Schools Netball league is a school-based tournament for girls from grass roots to National level. This is coordinated for both developmental and merit players.

Promotion of Arts and Culture events

Honourable speaker, mention has been made in the introduction to the significant role arts and culture can play in promoting economic growth and providing sustainable livelihoods for artists and crafters. This year Gauteng Province together with the City of Johannesburg will continue to host the Heritage Month Festival. In addition to showcasing, our legacy projects, two significant events will take place during September this year. The first of these is the National Sasol Choir Festival, which will take place at the Standard Bank Arena on the 18th September 2004.

The festival will celebrate both its twentieth anniversary as well as Ten Years of Democracy and we are indeed honoured that it will take place in our province.

The second national event to be hosted by our province is the National Craft Imbizo that will take place at the Bus Factory from 17-19 September. The Imbizo will create an environment where crafts people can showcase their wares to a range of buyers from local and international markets.

For several years now the Department has supported craft enterprise development as an effective means of creating sustainable employment opportunities mainly to women, who are often starved of formal education and training opportunities. The craft sector is able to build on existing community-based skills and offers an opportunity for the expression and preservation of cultural heritage. The significance of the National Craft Imbizo is that it gives us an opportunity to assist crafters in expanding their marketing base by finding accessible selling places locally and internationally.

This approach will be further expanded later in the year by a partnership between DTI and the National Department of Arts and Culture to develop regional, provincial, national and international craft fairs.

It is not a secret that our province wants to build our heritage month festival into an event l that will rival the Grahamstown Arts Festival or the North Sea Jazz Festival in the number of visitors it attracts to the province. A Carnival Summit hosted together with the City of Johannesburg in later this year will begin the process of identifying the particular mix of activities needed to increase the success of our annual Carnival.

Support for developing talent in Arts and Culture

As in the case of support for young athletes, no programme to promote Gauteng as a home of arts and culture can be complete without the promotion of young artistic talent.

In the 2003/2004 financial year, our Sivumingoma Choral programme drew 5500 participants as compared to 1475 the previous year. The programme seeks to promote the tradition of choral music, while identifying and accommodating the development of new talent in the works of more than 800 Gauteng-based choirs. The achievement of Amazwi kaNtu, a choir of young people from Tshwane which came second in the National Old Mutual Competition was a tribute both to the talents of the participants and of the many officials and adjudicators who work tirelessly to make this programme a success. Gauteng is honoured to have been asked to draft an SA Choral Structure that will serve as a guideline for the constitution of choirs and will develop basic standards for the choral industry in the country.

In partnership the FNB DANCE UMBRELLA, the department supports two awards in the development category. In all, half a million rand has been allocated to create sustainable work opportunities both local and international exposure for young dancers.

The Puisano Jazz Project initiated by this department to create access to overcome boundaries to the music industry to allow young talent to enter the market will also continue this year, with a further half a million rand earmarked for this programme.

Support for the Arts and Culture Sector

At recent stakeholder meetings held with community based arts and culture workers from around the province, concerns were raised regarding delays in release of Grants in Aid. Following a meeting with the Gauteng Arts and Culture Council, we are happy to announce that the council has a special programme to fast track the processing of grants this year. As we speak, adverts are appearing in the local press calling on applications from cultural organisations for funding, the closing date for all applications is the 15th August 2004.

In this financial year, we have allocated a total of R2 million to this initiative. As indicated in the introduction, government has an important role to play in focusing civil society attention on projects and programmes that ensure sustainable development of young talent as well as sustainable livelihoods and we have urged the Gauteng Arts Council to priorities programmes that promote these objectives in the recommendations they make to us for funding.

Promotion of Safe, secure and sustainable communities

The State of the Cities report makes the following observation: 'cities need to look at social development as well as urban economic development. Regardless of whether they can provide populations with adequately remunerated work opportunities, they need to ensure that their residents have the opportunities and capacities - both material and psychological-to equitably enjoy the social benefits of city life'. The report goes on to conclude that in cities and parts of cities where residents have a perception that they enjoy the benefits of urban life, those same residents are more likely to invest in their surroundings and display the types of entrepreneurial behaviour needed to lift their community out of poverty.

Sport, recreation arts and culture can play an important role in creating that sense of well-being and inclusion and hence in promoting safe secure and sustainable communities. A range of departmental programmes are aimed at promoting more sustainable community life these include:

* The Masakhane Games last year attracted 85 000 participants and this year aims to attract 90 000. In addition to providing an opportunity for promoting and developing over 26 sporting codes in historically disadvantaged communities, the games are also a platform for talent identification of future high performance athletes
* The involvement of over 20 000 youth and children in the Junior Dipapdi, Indigenous Games and Recre-rehab activities have promoted the participation in recreation activities and contributed to social crime
* Three aerobics marathons targeting youth and adults have been held in Soweto and the West Rand to encourage positive lifestyles and healthy living.

However, the challenge remains to promote sustainable recreation programmes at community level linked to existing municipal and other facilities. In some instances existing facilities are under utilised, in other situations a large number of community based sporting organisations are attempting to utilise pitifully inadequate facilities. In the course of this year, the Department will re-evaluate its approach to the provision of recreation programmes and the linkages between these and our facilities building programme.

Key considerations in this evaluation will relate to identifying recreation needs and capacity to deliver programmes from all levels of government as well as from clubs and other civil society organisations. Attention will be given to developing replicable models for delivering and managing recreation activities utilising a variety of public and community based actors and facilities.

In this regard, the R1 million grant given by the National Department of sports and recreation provides an interesting model. This pilot programme aims to target four communities with high social instability indices in Gauteng for recreation programmes. It involves an integrated approach to volunteer training, facility utilisation, and community participation. The results of this pilot programme will further inform our approach to this matter.

We also believe that we need to re-consider the existing wall between sport, recreation, arts and culture in our understanding of community based recreation programmes and will endeavour to offer arts and cultural activities as well in these programmes.

Deepening democracy and promoting nation building

In addition to the important spin-offs from the promotion of sports, recreation, arts and culture, the department hosts particular programmes that aim to deepen democracy and promote nation building.

First in foremost in this regard is the role that the department plays in co-coordinating national days on behalf of the Gauteng Provincial Government. Youth Day, organised in partnership with the Gauteng Education Department, and celebrated by over 45 000 young people at Orlando Stadium two weeks ago had two new attributes this year.

First, the newly appointed Gauteng Youth Commission played a central role in co-coordinating regional Youth Forums that culminated in a Youth Declaration, which was presented to the Premier by young people on June 16. The Declaration identified six areas in which youth of the province pledged to work to build a people's contract to build the economy, create work, and fight poverty and HIVAIDS. Secondly, we are happy to report that for the first time ever one entire stand was made up of young people from the white community who had decided to come to Orlando to pledge their commitment to celebrating our democracy and building our future.

The department is currently working on hosting the Provincial Women's Day 9th August Programme and the Gauteng Women's Awards will be presented by the Premier at this event.

During the course of this year, we will develop an integrated approach to the five national days hosted by our department as well as a communication strategy that will highlight the central messages and themes that the Gauteng Government wishes to showcase to its citizens.

The department will also conduct a study to identify gaps in heritage sites and museums, which could be developed in conjunction with private sector partners and local government to promote sites of historical interest. This would assist with both attracting visitors to the province and making the province's history and commitment to democracy more visible while growing a feeling of belonging and identity with Gauteng and South Africa among all the province's residents.

Library Services

In the course of this financial year, the department has committed itself to spending R3, 3 million rand on books and R800 000 on integrated ICT infrastructure. The Amabhuku Express a colourful and vibrant mobile library aims to conclude 60 programmes in this financial year, which include promoting reading amongst children in schools in rural areas. The Born to Read Programme and the Library Outreach and Reading Development Programme both aim to entrench reading and library use habits as well as expanding the ability to access information.

Most of the directorate's programmes focus on libraries located at local government level. In the course of this year a study will be conducted to investigate whether this service should continue to be located at provincial level or whether, together with the relevant budget, it should be devolved to local government level.

Facilities

Throughout this speech attention has been focused on the role facilities will play in promoting Gauteng as a preferred home for competitive sport as well in promoting recreational programmes. In this budget year focus will be given to completing existing building programmes at Poortjie, phase two Multi-Purpose Centre (MPC), Tsheptisong an MPC, Riet Vallei a Recreational Hall, Bekkersdal an Arts & Culture Centre, Lusaka a Sports Complex, at Ratanda a phase two Stadium, Extension 7 a Sports Field, a Swimming Pool, a MPC phase two, Sharpevill a Humans Rights Exhibition Centre, Thokoza a Swimming Pool, Kathlehong and upgrading to the stadium, Vosloorus an upgrading to the stadium, Attridgeville an upgrading to the super stadium, Sausville an upgrading of the existing arena and Solomon Mahlangu an upgrade of the Freedom Square.

With respect to job creation, we are currently standing at 750 local people employed in the projects under implementation. The Department of Labour has trained over 112 local community members in trade skills, most of who have been employed in the projects. All projects are implemented in collaboration with local municipalities. Seventy percent of consultants and contractors employed are previously disadvantaged individuals.

Over the course of this year, we will review all infrastructure projects in line with the department's new strategic priorities. Future projects will place greater emphasis on the relationship between community development programmes in the sports, recreation, arts and cultural spheres and facilities development as well as sustainable maintenance and management plans.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the HOD Ms Linda Mvanana and her team for the hard work they have put into re-orientating the department to new strategic priorities.

Special thanks go also to Mr Ivor Hoff who heads my office together with his team for all the long and difficult hours they have worked over the past two months.

I would also like to thank Mr Pule Malefane and the Portfolio Committee for their support in the 2004 / 2005 Budget and the many useful suggestions they made during the oversight process.

I thank you.

For more information contact: Charles Phahlane
Tel: (011) 355 6878
Cell: 082 856 8188
Issued by: Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Gauteng Provincial Government
29 June 2004

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