Issued by: Ministery of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF ARTS, CULTURE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, DR BEN NGUBANE
BUDGETARY ALLOCATION TO THE PERFORMING ARTS COUNCILS (PAC'S)
Minister NGubane today announced an overall cut of 22% in the budgetary allocations of the four Performing Arts Councils.
It follows a meeting of the Council of Culture Ministers (CCM) (consisting of the Minister and Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Provincial MEC's) which was held in Cape Town on 26 February 1996.
The amount to be allocated to each of the four PAC's will be announced with the tabling of the Budget by the Minister of Finance.
Funds in an amount of R27m will become available due to the cuts and will be used to fund new and urgent priorities of the Ministry such as:
The Ministry is also busy developing an investment strategy for the film and music industries.
The cuts were introduced after a careful analysis and are part of an ongoing programme of redistributing resources to all art forms, especially those that were historically neglected. The ideal, the Minister added, was to establish funding on an equitable basis within a period of three years.
The Minister, in conclusion said, that the White Paper on Arts and Culture would be released within the next six weeks. That would set the tone for an administrative and legal framework for the arts and culture sector.