Honourable Speaker;
Honourable Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier;
Members of the Executive Council;
Honourable Members;
Head of the Department Ms Namhla Siqaza;
Chairpersons of the statutory bodies;
Leaders of Sport, Arts and Culture organisations;
Members of the Media;
Distinguished guests and
Ladies and gentlemen

As I rise to table my maiden Budget Vote in my capacity as the MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture, and Recreation as we commence the fifth term of our democracy. Let me humbly express my appreciation to the Honourable Premier David Makhura for the honour bestowed upon me to lead this department. I am truly humbled and commit myself to exercise my responsibility to the utmost with integrity and honour.

I am cognisant of the fact that the political landscape of South Africa and of Gauteng in particular is a far cry from what it was prior to 1994.

The South Africa we inhabit today is a reflection of what the former President of the ANC, Mr Oliver Tambo envisioned when in his Statement at the Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, on the 26th of October 1976 stated:

We have a vision of, and we fight for, a future South Africa in which national oppression will be abolished once and for all, in which racism in whatever form it rears its ugly head will be suppressed with all the might of popular power.

We fight to restore power to the hands of the people. Our national democratic revolution therefore has the task also of liberating even our oppressors. We will create a South Africa in which the doors of learning and of culture shall be open to all.

We will have a South Africa in which the young of our country shall have access to the best that mankind has produced, in which they shall be taught to love their people of all races, to defend the equality of the people, to honour creative labour, to uphold the oneness of mankind and to hate untruth, obscurantism, immorality and avarice.

We will have a South Africa which will live in peace with its neighbours and with the rest of the world. It will base its foreign relations on the principles of non-interference and mutually advantageous assistance among the people as well as the continuation of the struggle against the system of imperialist and neo-colonialist domination. “

It follows therefore, Honourable Members, that nation building and social cohesion are not a luxury. Our past demands that we join our hands in sustaining the ideals for which our gallant heroes and heroines both sung and unsung lived and died for.

Our department derives its mandate from the ideals which were enunciated by OR Tambo as quoted above. The National Development Plan locates Sport, Arts and Culture at the centre of our young nation’s well- being and social cohesion.

We have just concluded the department’s Strategic Plan which will guide us in pursuit of our mandate for the current term of office. Our approach will be developmental and transformative by ensuring that communities become our active partners in service delivery.

The department will also promote the Modernisation of systems with effective and efficient utilisation of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) E-Governance to improve service delivery.

Programmes will be monitored and evaluated as guided by the Government–Wide Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. We are therefore committed to enforcing social cohesion and contribute towards the physical, emotional and intellectual wellbeing of our society.

Honourable Speaker;

During the month of June, which is dedicated to the Youth, the department in partnership with the office of the Premier opened a Youth Memorial Acre in honour of the fallen heroes and heroines of June 16, 1976 in Soweto next to Morris Isaacson High School and laid wreaths at the Hector Peterson memorial.

The Honourable Premier delivered his inaugural State of the Province Address on the 27th of June in Thokoza, where he visited Sam Ntuli burial and also declaring the site where he was killed a heritage site, this process will be concluded by end of September.

During the month of August will be convening a Memorial Lecture for our fallen heroines of our struggle such as Charlotte Maxeke, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Ellen Khuzwayo, Ruth First, Adelaide Tambo, Albertina Sisulu, Sister Bernard Ncube, Reverend Motlalepula Chabaku, Francis Baard, Maria Mahlangu, and many other unsung heroines.

We will as tradition, now dictates, celebrate the Women’s Day in the month of August at the Union Building in partnership with the Premier’s Office and the City of Tshwane. We will also pay tribute to all fallen heroines of our struggle for liberation. It is therefore my pleasure and honour to invite all Members of this augurs house to this celebration.

We will also acknowledge the progress made since the dawn of democracy in lifting women high in political office; the likes of Dr Frene Ginwala, the first woman to the position of the Speaker of the National Assembly; Dr Nkosazana Zuma, the first woman to lead the African Union Commission; Mrs Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka who was the first Deputy President of South Africa from 2005 to 2008; followed by Baleka Mbete from 2008/09.

We will interrogate the prevalent values and open debates on what it means to be a female in a liberated South Africa after 20 years of democracy. We will also host a dialogue with female artists in order to ensure that they continue to make a meaningful mark in the arts and culture industry.

Before the end of the financial year we will convene a “Cultural Initiation Indaba”, where representatives of traditional leaders, the department of health, municipalities, churches and other relevant stakeholders shall participate and resolve on practical measures that can be introduced to minimise and ultimately eliminate deaths during initiation of young men. It is no one’s intention for young men to die during cultural initiation, this Indaba should be seen as an gesture of government‘s intention to assist.

Honourable Speaker;

The Budget allocated to the department for 2014/15 Financial Year amounts to R 714 362 million, which depicts an increase of 33% from 2013/14 Financial Year allocation. This increase is due to R20 million which has being allocated for the up-grading of Bon Van Reenen Stadium in Krugersdorp, and R132 million allocated for the construction of the Provincial Archive Centre.

The sod turning will be conducted during the coming month, cognisant of the fact that delays on this project were beyond our control. We have however, checks and balances in place to ensure that these bulk infrastructure projects are completed and delivered in time and within allocated budgets.

In our quest to create employment in the creative industry, we will reconfigure the Gauteng Film Commission. In due course the department will announce ground-breaking changes on how the Commission will be reconfigured. Reference has been made to the Terms of Reference of the commission, the funding model, the staffing model and these have assisted in developing a new concept that includes all creative arts, music and film. The Commission will be incorporated into the Gauteng Creative Industry Agency (GCIA) after the publication of its reconfiguration.

Programmes which are implemented by this Agency will largely benefit up and coming entrepreneurs in the film industry especially those coming from the previously disadvantaged communities. Its sub-programs will include among others, fashion, craft, film, media and television, performing arts, music, visual and audio arts, fine arts and publications.

We will pursue radical transformation on all these industries. It is our strong belief that all talented and capable people of Gauteng should be exposed to and have access to this industry. We will ensure that emerging film makers are trained and developed towards “employability” and gainful participation in this sector. We will engage private partners in order to maximise skills transfer.

We will also continue to implement the strategies for creative industry such as music, visual arts and performing Arts at an amount of R2,5 million that will empower and provide a fair and inclusive citizenship.

Honourable Members;

Mass participation in Cultural programmes is pivotal in order to contribute to economic growth. It is our strong belief that in order to address the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment, the arts, culture and heritage sector should play a significant role in creating jobs and alleviating poverty.

Therefore, as government we have a responsibility to create an enabling environment and provide support mechanisms. Through craft hubs we contribute to the economy in terms of enterprise development. Currently, we have three craft hubs situated in Sedibeng, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. We intend to have 5 craft hubs towards the end of this fifth administrative term.

In order to maximise efficiency, we have established 27 “hubs” which are modelled into geographical zones. These hubs utilise multi-purpose community centers which render integrated services while being located where communities live. We will through intergovernmental relations be working closely with local municipalities where these hubs are located to ensure that they are fully functional.

Gauteng is indeed prepared and committed to reach the marginalised communities in our province through Community Recreational Hub Projects. The objective of these Community Recreational Hub Projects is to increase and sustain participation in recreational programmes thus promoting healthy life style and prevention of social crime. We will progressively increase the hubs to be accessible to all the 508 wards.

In order to show-case our cultural and artistic vibrancy as a province, we will continue to coordinate and host the annual Gauteng Carnival. To this end we aim to create 2 500 job opportunities. We will liaise with relevant foreign embassies through appropriate channels with a view to involve those foreign communities who have become part of Gauteng. By involving these embassies there will be enhancement of economic growth and reduction of xenophobia.

The department is committed to Arts and Cultural events which includes indigenous musical instruments conference, Moshito music conference, Joy of Jazz and Gauteng Summer splash.

We will also increase support to schools which implement the Carnival Arts Curriculum from 90 to 100 in this financial year. This support is in the form of attire, musical instruments and arts equipment. We believe this will go a long way towards in inspiring learner’s interests in creative arts.

We will continue to work together with the Gauteng Department of Education to increase the number of schools which offer Visual Arts, Drama and Dance subjects as part of the curriculum especially in townships.

Already we have offered 36 bursaries to deserving Visual Arts and Performing Drama students at an amount of R2 million through the Gauteng City Region Academy. Upon completing and qualifying, these bursary beneficiaries will teach these subjects in township schools as part of their contractual obligation.

May I also take this opportunity to announce that in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework we will reinvigorate choral music competitions in schools in order to nurture musical talent and produce the like of Sibongile Khumalos and the Four tenors.

Honourable Members;

In response to the National Development Plan, we will also provide ICT support to emerging artists to facilitate creation of works which express national creativity, while opening space for vibrant debate on issues of national importance.

In pursuit of this objective we will continue to provide financial support to 120 targeted cultural and artistic groups whose evaluated outputs are congruent with the mandate of the department. In addition, we will assist in leveraging opportunities to host cultural and artistic events in our Province.

Madam Speaker;

The 20th year of our democracy makes September a very special month; we are all reminded of our fallen heroes and heroines who contributed with their sweat and blood and many who have lost their lives in pursuit of a democracy we are now enjoying hence we have to celebrate this month in a very big way.

We will commemorate these fallen heroes and heroines with Memorial Lectures, dialogues, seminars and declare some graves as provincial Heritage Sites. We will also commemorate the legacies of heroes and heroines such as the late Mam Bertha Gxowa amongst others.

Honourable Members;

The department will have consultations sessions throughout Heritage month to reflect on the 20 Years of Freedom with artists, philatelists (stamp collectors) and their associations to develop Commemorative Stamp and post cards concepts, artistic impressions and do financial or revenue projections of the artistic impression that will project the best memory of 20 Years of Freedom based on the evaluation and input of philatelists and other role players.

The topic, 20 Years of Freedom and Democracy will be used to commission concepts as a guide to the production of a main stamp (best impression) and the following values from Chapter 2 of the Constitution will guide the development of the main theme and sub-themes in the 20 years of freedom of expression, association, movement, religion, believe and opinion, right to equality and education and finally right to language and culture.

Concepts with resultant artistic impressions should at best reflect the practical around the achievements of the 20 years of freedom and democracy; demonstrate the peoples practical and progressive shift acts of oppression, suppression of human rights, dispossession and discriminatory practices of the past.

Heritage month will reflect the practical launch of the project with the slogan “Put your stamp on 20 Years of Freedom” and the final unveiling will be done on Reconciliation Day in December 2014.

We will also unveil the Boipatong Memorial that will continue to be a reminder of our past. This will serve to promote political tolerance and reinforce the message that: the culture of political intolerance has no place in our current dispensation! The history that we are products of, which we also contributed to, is not a fable, it is a reality. The majority of our people bear indelible generational scars from their history.

Honourable Members;

Based on the statement above, we need to carry on fostering nation building and social cohesion as part of our mandate. This will be done through the promotion and commemoration of national days and symbols by all Gauteng citizens. We hope that as we continue celebrating these days and complementing them with other sporting cultural events will bring about a sense of patriotism in our province as demonstrated during the FIFA World Cup.

We want to urge all the Gauteng citizens to visit all our heritage monuments and museums as part of preserving and promote our history and to cascade this information to our future generations.

In this regard a sponsored School trips to the Apartheid and all other Museums in the province will play a meaningful role. I appeal to parents to spend valuable time with their children to undertake visits to these Museums.

As most of the Honourable Members will know, every child of Jewish extraction is taught about the horrors of the holocaust, therefore we owe it to future generations that the horrors of apartheid are known and should never be repeated. This we should never, ever be apologetic about.

Hence it is a duty of each and every parent in our province to accompany their children to visit the Apartheid Museum at least once in their life time. This is addressed to every parent in Gauteng. Our history and heritage define us as a people.

This year’s Heritage Day will be commemorated in the West Rand in order to strengthen the significance of the Cradle of Humankind, which was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.

Honourable Members;

We have finalised developing a Provincial Geographic Naming Systems framework. This is aimed at ensuring that while provincial and local geographical names should reflect our history, we must also minimise unnecessary acrimonious and sometimes costly processes in pursuit of this noble objective.

By the end of the current financial year, all Metropolitan, District and Local Councils will have established Geographical Committees in line with the South African Geographical Names Council. In this current financial year, we will establish five regional and five local geographic names in the province.

I take this opportunity to appeal to Municipalities to exercise extreme sensitivity and ensure that correct spelling is adhered to when putting up names of streets, buildings, and other entities.

In this regard I refer to those which bear indigenous names. It must never be accepted that Thokoza in Ekurhuleni is still spelt without an “h” after the alphabet T, and similarly, Themba in Hammanskraal (Tshwane) is also spelt without an “h” after the alphabet T. It is disheartening to millions of our people to see misspelling of indigenous names which are engraved on public entities 20 years into our liberation.

In this current financial year, honourable members we will implement the Provincial Language Policy. We will ensure that this Provincial Language Legislation is promulgated into Law and language coordinating committee will be established.

Honourable Speaker;

Our Heritage activities will culminate with us hosting the Gauteng Chapter of the National Liberation route where a Remembrance Walk in honour of our first democratically elected President, Mr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela will be commemorated.

This event will mark the climax of our heritage programme. Mandela political history and legacy is strongly entrenched within the City of Tshwane. The late President Nelson Mandela was the first South African President to have his body lie in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The Union Buildings hold extreme significance for South Africa as the official seat of South Africa's government and houses The Presidency as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs - but it was also the place where Madiba was sworn in as the first democratically elected president of South Africa - nearly two decades ago.

This Remembrance Walk concept goes back to pre-Christian times to show the public that a leader has indeed died. However Professor of Social Anthropology at Wits University, David Caplan, says in modern times it's an honour and a display of respect. This event in will be able attract diverse audience and participants in the true legacy of this son of the soil. This will further promote tourism and economic development in our Province. The full details of this event will be announced once the formal processes have been finalised.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members;

In collaboration with the Gauteng Department of Education, Municipalities, private and non-governmental partners, we will continue to inculcate a culture of reading and lifelong learning. We will also preserve and make accessible the archival records of the province.

By the end of this financial year, we will have finalised norms and standards for libraries in Gauteng. We envisage that a person who accesses a library in Duduza should access the same services as a person who lives in Houghton.

These will include among others, population size, infrastructure, staffing levels and skills, ICT and ideal per capita visits per annum. We will therefore re-capitalise under-resourced libraries in townships in order for them to comply with these envisaged norms and standards.

It is our strong belief that public library services are a public good; therefore we will put an end to a two tier public library system. To this end, we will continue collaborating with our local municipalities in order to redirect resources to deserving libraries. We will continue to transfer funds to our local municipalities for the smooth running of libraries. In this current financial year, an amount of R55,2 million will be transferred which increased by 45% as compared to the pervious financial allocation of R38 million.

We will also explore alternative means of construction and delivery of libraries where municipalities have sufficient capacity to manage these infrastructures. In this current financial year, we will commission 8 new libraries to the value of R83 million. It is our intention to expedite completion of these libraries without compromising quality. To this end, we will closely monitor adherence to budgets.

Library and archival services become white elephants when they are under- utilised. Therefore we will mobilise communities of all age groups to take responsibility for knowledge production and accumulation. We are determined to encourage Gauteng people not to be only consumers of knowledge but should also produce it.

This knowledge mobilisation will be complemented by mass and social media. We aim to achieve regulated free internet connectivity in all our libraries in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The Provincial Archive Centre which I referred to earlier in this speech will be a repository of our identity. We will ensure that it is accessible and utilised optimally. We will also appoint an Archives Board with requisite skills and competencies.

Honourable Speaker;

We remain inspired by this giant who is a product of the African National Congress. Madiba was not only a great and accomplished politician; he was equally skilful in the boxing ring. He made it his mission to use sport to unite South Africans. All sporting codes in our country outperformed themselves because of Madiba magic. Gauteng province salutes Madiba for his inspiration to our sports men and women.

Honourable Members;

We are proud to announce that our teams are doing very well at the 2014 Common Wealth Games in Glascow, Scotland; as in yesterday, the 30th, we had already collected 9 Gold medals, 7 Silver and 10 bronze and we are hopeful and confident our athletes would have won more by the end of the games. This simply shows that the spirit of Madiba lives on!!!!

Sports and Recreation continues to make an immense contribution to nation building. This program also provides sustainable livelihoods to sports men and women. Whenever our sporting codes under-perform internationally, the outcry is: invest in development at grassroots level!

Honourable Speaker:

We have introduced a new flagship project in this term called Operation Mabaleng. We acknowledge that there are shortages of Sporting facilities for our people. Operation Mabaleng will address these shortcomings. The project will reach out to as many inactive and deprived townships; informal settlements and rural areas through sport activities such as Football, Netball, Cricket and other sporting codes. The multi-purpose centers with flood lights will be build, each facility will include a big screen for public viewing, snooker tables, gym. These will progressively be erected in above mentioned areas.

Honourable Members;

We are happy to announce that Lesedi Local Municipality and Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality have offered us sites and agreed in doing the initial excavations and fencing for us to put up the structures and Mogale City Local Municipality has also committed its support to the project. These structures will be made possible through Public Private Partnership; already there are those that have committed. The intention is to draw the youth from the streets and this will address the challenges of social ills within our communities.

Honourable Members;

There is a common understanding that school sport is a platform for grooming future winning sporting nations. Therefore we will intensify programmes aimed at integrating school sport to regular education activities. This will be pursued in collaboration with the Gauteng Department of Education. We have allocated an amount of R32,5 million to implement school sports program in our Province. This will be in the form of Gauteng Farm School Festival, Gauteng Schools Sport Games. We envisage training 600 educators and sports volunteers in the tune of R5,3 million to deliver school sport programs in the province.

On the other hand, I appeal with parents in township schools to make time and support their children when they participate in inter-school tournaments. This builds confidence and pride in future sports stars. In this regard we are providing support for talent spotting and development at entry level and also at grassroots level. This is pursued in partnership with high performance centers, professional sporting bodies, and tertiary institutions.

The Annual Gauteng Sports Awards held on the 11 of July 2014 at Monte Casino was a tremendous success, its main purpose is to acknowledges excellence in the respective sporting codes, these annual event has proven to be a trend setter for the whole of country.

Honourable Members, may I take this opportunity to congratulate our accomplished sportsman, Mr Lucas Radebe, who was bestowed with a Lifetime Achievers Award at these Gauteng Sports Awards. He remains an inspiration and ambassador to millions of South Africans.

We also congratulate Mr Teko Modise who was honoured the Sportsman of the Year at the very same awards. It has been an arduous long road for this enterprising young man who some thought was over the hill. We further congratulate Super Sport Football Club for winning the Gauteng Challenge on the 19th of July at Lucas Moripe Stadium. Let me also take the opportunity to congratulate Orlando Pirates Football Club for winning the Carling Black Label Cup on the 26th of July during the derby. We will leverage this opportunity to market Gauteng as the home of sport, whenever these derbies are held. This provides us with an opportunity for tourism which we cannot allow to elude us.

Allow me Honourable Speaker, to also congratulate Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba, after his appointment as Bafana Bafana coach last Saturday. We have confidence in him, and wish him all the best, his record speaks for itself!

The trend that was set by the Gauteng Blue Bulls when they played their home game at Orlando Stadium was ground breaking. In order to replicate this trend, we will engage management of the Blue Bulls Rugby team to explore a possibility of staging a pilot rugby match at Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville. We hope this will go a long way to building social cohesion.

We wish to revive and support the Soweto Marathon. This will be achieved through strong partnerships that share the same vision of promoting a healthy nation and positioning Gauteng as a home of champions. We cannot allow Soweto Marathon to fade.

Honourable Members we are committed to engage and consult all our stakeholders in our programs to ensure effective and efficient service delivery. To this effect a program on stakeholder engagement has been developed to reach all sectors which has started in July and it will run till December managed by our communications unit.

Honourable Speaker;

The department has finalised a Risk Management Plan as required by the PFMA. We also have anti-fraud and corruption plans in place. We have also identified key risk areas and developed plans to mitigate them.

All these plans have been cascaded to the department’s business units. We have begun reducing expenditure on non-core areas in order to reduce wastage and realise tangible savings. Financial controls, human resource policies, are being adhered to and we continue to closely monitor our adherence to good governance prescripts in order to maintain our clean audit.

Above all, where competencies are shared with Local Government, we have ensured meticulous synergised planning. We have Service Level Agreements in place, and these are signed and updated annually in order to ensure that agreed upon deliverables are monitored closely.

We are cognisant of the fact that government budget allocations can never be sufficient but we will ensure that value accrues for each and every cent we spend.

I therefore take this opportunity to thank the Premier for his principled leadership and my colleagues in the Executive Council for their support. I also extend a special note of gratitude to my predecessor, Honourable MEC Lebogang Maile, for laying a solid foundation for the department to deliver on its mandate.

I also thank the Portfolio Committee for its robust oversight especially when interrogating the Principle of this Budget Vote. I thank all categories of staff in the department for their dedication, my colleagues in the ANC Caucus, and lastly my family for enduring endless hours of absence.

I state without equivocation that we will deliver on our mandate! We will not be found wanting!!!!!!!

Thank you.