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The Department of Arts and Culture is once again pleased to support the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. The 15th edition of the festival will take place on 28 to 29 March 2014 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The department supports the festival in line with its Mzansi Golden Economy strategy which seeks to promote the role of arts, culture and heritage in economic development and job creation. The strategy aims to support arts-related initiatives that have the potential to create jobs and stimulate economic growth across the country. The ultimate goal is that every province should host at least two main programmes that meet the objectives of Mzansi Golden Economy strategy.

The department believes that this approach is also in line with the rural development priority of government. Consequently we support programmes such as Macufe Arts Festival and Mine Dance Festival (Free State), Buyela Khaya Festival and Grahamstown National Arts Festival (Eastern Cape), Mapungubwe Arts Festival and Marula Festival (Limpopo), Kalahari Dessert and Diamonds & Dorings Festivals (Northern Cape), Joy of Jazz Festival and Moretele Festival (Gauteng), Taung Calabash and SAMA Awards (North West), Cape Town Jazz Festival, Design Indaba and Cape Carnival (Western Cape), Ilembe Lifestyle Festival, Drakensburg-Okhahlamba Berge Festival and Durban Film Festival (KwaZulu-Natal).

The Department of Arts and Culture believes that its investment in these programmes provides major economic boost to the hosting regions and provinces. It is a fact that tour operators hotels, restaurants, game parks, petroleum companies, car hire companies, airlines, general retailers and many others experience increased demand in their services and goods during the periods of arts festivals.

These peaks lead to increased production (at manufacturing level) and increased need for labour, thereby creating more jobs. This ultimately has economic benefit for all participants in the value chain. "This is the power of the arts, they lay the foundation for greatness. We encourage corporates to support the arts so that we can grow the audiences and improve skills on both the technical and creative aspects of the arts”, said Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile.